Foreign women likely to stand trial in Aceh

Ibnu Mat Noor and Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

Two foreign women who are being detained for suspected involvement in separatist activities while on tourist visas, will likely stand trial in the Banda Aceh District Court on charges of immigration violations.

Meanwhile, the two women, Scottish researcher Lesley McCulloch, 42, and American volunteer Joy Lee Sadler, 57, protested to the police about mistreatment, including sexual harassment, committed by soldiers who nabbed them last Wednesday in South Aceh.

The two along with their Acehnese interpreter were nabbed by a group of soldiers when they came out of a village in South Aceh last Wednesday.

Aceh Provincial Police chief Insp. Gen. Yusuf Manggabarani said the police had no plan to release the suspects in the near future because during the investigation on Thursday they admitted involvement in activities that were incompatible with their tourist visas.

"We want to impose the immigration law against them. We are still preparing their case files to be submitted to the government prosecutors to bring them to court," he told The Jakarta Post by cellular phone here on Thursday.

He said the two suspects could be prosecuted because according to immigration law, both had abused their tourist visas by involving themselves in activities connected with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

"They could be sentenced to a maximum of five years imprisonment if they are found guilty of violating Immigration Law chapter 50," he said, adding that the police were not under any pressure in carrying out the investigation.

He did not comment on the two foreigners' six-day detention without clear status in South Aceh. Both were declared suspects six days after they were captured by soldiers. According to the Criminal Code, a person's status must be decided within 24 hours of being detained.

Manggabarani said further that despite their status as suspects, the pair were treated humanely because unlike other suspects, they were not put in the detention house.

"They spend their nights in the detective unit's guest room so that they can take rest quietly," he added.

Meanwhile, the pair reported to the police that they were mistreated by soldiers moments before undergoing the police investigation.

Rufriadi, a lawyer from the Banda Aceh Legal Aid Institute (LBH), who accompanied the two during the police investigation, told the Post that they conveyed their protest to the police but did not gain a positive response.

"They protested the way the soldiers had treated them. They reported how soldiers threatening to stab them to death and that they were sexually harassed," he said.

Rufriadi confirmed that the police focussed their investigation on their violation of the immigration law.

He said his clients would likely be brought to court.

"They conceded they requested tourist visas after having difficulty obtaining visas for humanitarian activities," he said, adding that he did not know when the police investigation would be completed and when his clients would stand trial.

He said he would fight for his clients' release or deportation at the worst because the police had no material evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy with the separatist movement.