Court delays rights trial verdict

Court delays rights trial verdict

JAKARTA: The Indonesian human rights court delayed sentencing
a senior police officer over charges stemming from East Timor's
bloody secession from Indonesia in 1999, saying it needed to hear
further testimony from witnesses.

Lt. Col. Hulman Gultom, the former police chief of East
Timor's capital Dili, is accused of failing to prevent pro-
Jakarta militiamen from massacring at least 12 pro-independence
supporters in the city on April, 17, 1999.

He was due to be sentenced Wednesday, but Judge Adriani Nurdin
said the court needed to hear more testimony from East Timorese
witnesses, including former Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes
Belo.

Nurdin said the court planned to use video-conferencing
technology to enable the witnesses to testify without leaving
East Timor. At least one Timorese witness has complained of
intimidation when he was brought to Jakarta to testify.

Gultom's trial is the latest in a series designed to bring
those responsible for the violence to justice.

So far, seven Indonesian officers have been cleared of all
charges. Only two of the accused, the former governor of East
Timor and a notorious militia leader, have been found guilty and
sentenced accordingly. Both are East Timorese civilians.

Local and international human rights groups have described the
trials as a sham.