Men from E. Timor jailed for UNHCR murders<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The North Jakarta District Court dropped
\nmanslaughter charges on Friday against three of the six men from
\nEast Timor tried for the murders of three UN aid workers in West
\nTimor last year, immediately prompting anger from the United
\nNations.<\/p>\n
Presiding judge Anak Agung Gde Dalem sentenced the three to
\nbetween 16 months and 20 months imprisonment on the lesser charge
\nof fomenting violence that resulted in the death of the three UN
\nworkers.<\/p>\n
Julius Naisama got 20 months, while Jose Francisco and Joao
\nAlvez da Cruz got 16 months each.<\/p>\n
Judge Anak Agung contended the three escaped manslaughter
\ncharges because of a few mitigating factors, including that they
\nhad admitted to stabbing the victims, but not being involved in
\ntheir burning.<\/p>\n
\"The attack was carried out by a mob and not only by them. The
\nresult of the autopsy also showed that the victims' bodies were
\nbadly damaged, making it difficult to identify who committed the
\nkilling,\" the judge told the court.<\/p>\n
He said that the three convicts had admitted stabbing two of
\nthe victims during the frenzied attack by East Timorese refugees
\nin the West Timor border town of Atambua in September last year.<\/p>\n
Three workers of the United Nations High Commission for
\nRefugees (UNHCR) -- American Carlos Casaeres, Ethiopian Samson
\nAregahegn and Croat Peril Simundze -- were hacked to death and
\nthen burned.<\/p>\n
The slayings provoked an international outcry and sparked the
\nexodus of international aid workers from West Timor, leaving
\nabout one hundred thousand East Timorese refugees in the hands of
\nIndonesian authorities and local aid workers.<\/p>\n
In the next trial in the same courtroom that was also presided
\nover by judge Anak Agung, the judges found the other three East
\nTimorese guilty of conspiring to foment violence that resulted in
\nthe damage of property belonging to UNHCR.<\/p>\n
The judges sentenced Xisto Pereira and Joao Martins to 10
\nmonths in jail each and Serafin Ximenes to 15 months in jail. The
\nthree had originally been charged with violence leading to the
\ndeath of a person or persons.<\/p>\n
The prosecutors and defense lawyers said they would notify the
\ncourt next Friday of whether or not they would appeal the
\nsentences.<\/p>\n
\"The judges' considerations have fulfilled the people's sense
\nof justice by not placing all the blame on the defendants,\"
\ndefense lawyers chief Suhardi Somomoelyono told reporters.<\/p>\n
Julius Naisama, who got the heaviest sentence, said after the
\ncourt session he did not regret what he had done and accepted the
\nsentence.<\/p>\n
\"I proudly accept the sentence because I did what I had to do
\nto defend the country's red and white flag,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Julius Naisama and the other five convicts all wore identical
\nred and white shirts and baseball caps that showed their identity
\nas prointegration fighters.<\/p>\n
The UNHCR and United Nations Transitional Administration in
\nEast Timor (UNTAET) representative office in Jakarta both
\nexpressed their outrage.<\/p>\n
\"We think it is particularly outrageous that the defendants'
\nunhappiness with the result of the (1999) East Timor independence
\nreferendum was mentioned by the judge as a mitigating
\ncircumstance,\" UNTAET political affairs officer Elisabeth Moorphy
\ntold AFP.<\/p>\n
In Geneva, UNHCR officials blasted the length of the sentences
\nof the six as a \"mockery\" of the international community's sense
\nof justice, describing the verdicts as \"deeply disturbing\".<\/p>\n
\"The sentences make a mockery of the international community's
\ninsistence that justice be done in this horrific case,\" the UNHCR
\nsaid in a statement.<\/p>\n
\"Today's sentencing ... flies in the face of world opinion and
\nis an affront to the memory of those humanitarians who gave their
\nlives in the service of others,\" UNHCR said.<\/p>\n
It intended to study the court decision and consider what
\nfurther legal action it might take in response to the lenient
\nsentences on the six. (bby)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/men-from-e-timor-jailed-for-unhcr-murders-1447893297",
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