E. Timor defendants acquitted

E. Timor defendants acquitted

JAKARTA: The Supreme Court upheld the acquittal of five top-
brass military and police defendants in a case involving East
Timor human rights abuses during 1999, a justice said.

The five are former Suai military commander Lt. Col. Sugito,
former Covalima regent Col. Herman Sedyono, former Suai military
commander Lt. Col. Liliek Koeshadianto, the former Suai military
command's chief of staff, Capt. Achmad Syamsuddin, and former
Suai Police precinct chief Lt. Col. Gatot Subiaktoro. All were
charged with gross human rights violations.

The justices ruled there were no command links between the
defendants and pro-Indonesia militia, who fought East Timor
separatists.

If found guilty the men would have faced 10 years imprisonment
or the death sentence.

They were earlier acquitted from wrongdoing by the Jakarta ad
hoc human rights tribunal in 2002. -- JP