Abilio gets three years in jail for rights violations

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Former East Timor Governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares has been jailed for three years after Indonesia's landmark human rights tribunal found him guilty of human rights abuses.

The sentence, well below the near eleven-year sentence demanded by state prosecutors, sparked immediate criticism from human rights groups and Abilio himself.

Abilio is the first of 18 senior officials, who mainly comprise military officers, including three Army generals, to be sentenced for the bloody violence before, during, and after the United Nations-sponsored referendum in East Timor in 1999.

The judges, presided over by Judge Marni Emmy Mustafa, found Abilio guilty of the primary charge against him: Failure to prevent and halt violence involving his subordinates.

Abilio immediately rejected the verdict, saying he would appeal.

"I'm not guilty. I have been made a scapegoat. The government must be responsible for the mess in East Timor in 1999," Abilio told reporters.

Hendardi, a lawyer with the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association, slammed the verdict, saying justice had not been served for the East Timorese victims who suffered arbitrary torture and death.

"The judges are contemptuous of the law by issuing such a light sentence," Hendardi told The Jakarta Post.

Hendardi warned that the culprits of human rights abuses in East Timor may be brought to the International Court of Justice if the on-going rights trial failed to bring justice.

"We are facing an international tribunal now as the verdict failed to meet international standards," Hendardi said.

"The sentence is minimal ... much too light," Albert Hasibuan of the National Commission on Human Rights told AFP Wednesday.

Noted Indonesian rights lawyer, Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara, questioned the reasoning behind the verdict.

"If the judges deem that the prosecutors have been unable to substantiate their charges, then the defendant should have been found not guilty, but if he is guilty of gross human rights violations, the punishment should not be a mere three years," Nusantara said.

As if anticipating public criticism over the light sentence, Marni said the judges were not acting as the voice of law No. 26/2000 on Human Rights Courts but of justice.

"We issued the sentence based on justice, not on revenge. Besides, a letter from East Timor President Xanana Gusmao implies a reconciliation among fighting groups in East Timor," Marni said.

Xanana sent a letter earlier to the panel of judges, subtly urging them not to hold Abilio responsible for the violence.