East Timorese get death for ambush

East Timorese get death for ambush

JAKARTA (JP): A district court sentenced to death two East
Timorese separatist rebels Thursday for their involvement in a
May 30 ambush which killed 17 security personnel in Baucau
regency, East Timor.

Antara reported that Luis Maria da Silva, 57, and Fransisco da
Costa, 36, were found guilty by the Baucau district court of
violating Article 55 of the Criminal Code relating to armed
assault against government authorities.

Presiding Judge Hanceh Tothmaran said both defendants had
committed subversion with their grenade attack on the truck
carrying security personnel in Nuamana village.

The security personnel were returning from guarding polling
stations in Quelicai subdistrict, southeast of Baucau, following
national elections.

Seventeen policemen were killed during the ambush, while 10
others were injured.

The ambush was one of a series of bloody attacks on police and
civilians by separatist rebels throughout East Timor around the
time of the country's May 29 general elections.

The judge said that during the trial the defendants had shown
no remorse and that one of them, Luis Maria da Silva, had once
been imprisoned for seven years for killing two policemen in
Baucau in 1985.

"In this case, we (the panel of judges) have seen no single
factor that allows us to hand down a more lenient sentence,"
Hanceh said in his ruling.

"On the contrary, their crime had stirred unrest among the
Indonesian people, especially the East Timorese," he was quoted
as saying by Antara.

Both defendants were also found guilty of illegal possession
of firearms.

The defendants have decided to appeal. One of their lawyers
from the Dili Legal Aid Institute, Nursalim Palilin, argued that
the death sentence was not in accordance with the state
philosophy of Pancasila.

The death penalty in Indonesia is carried out by firing squad.

Rights

It was also reported Thursday that the Dili diocese-affiliated
Commission of Justice and Peace, and the Foundation of Law, Human
Rights and Justice in Dili had stated that they had received as
many as 451 public complaints since January this year.

The foundation's chairman, Aniceto Guterres Lopes, and the
commission's chairman, Amandio de Araujo, revealed that 339 of
the cases were linked to violence and violations of human rights.

The complaints received by the foundation, 80 percent of which
were deemed to be true, were handled by its members, while those
received by the commission were passed on to related government
authorities. (aan/33)