GAM leaders released by Swedish court
Tiarma Siboro and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta
A Swedish court ordered on Friday the release of two exiled leaders of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) accused by the Indonesian government of staging assassinations, bombings and kidnappings.
The Huddinge District Court in Stockholm, however, remains uncertain whether prosecutors will drop their case.
The court ordered the release of the self-styled GAM foreign minister Zaini Abdullah, 63, and the self-styled prime minister Malik Mahmood, 64, ruling that prosecutors "have not presented enough evidence to justify their further detention".
The two GAM leaders were arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of crimes violating international law. A third man, Hasan Tiro, 80, who is the GAM chief, was not arrested because of health reasons.
"The court decided that there was not enough evidence to keep them in custody," court clerk Lars Berger said as quoted by AFP.
The decision came just after the Indonesian police sent three officers to Sweden to supply more evidence of the GAM leaders' involvement in acts of violence in Indonesia.
Berger said he did not know if prosecutors would pursue their probe. "What will happen now I cannot say. It's up to the prosecutors to see if they want to pursue their investigation."
In Aceh, GAM commander-in-chief Muzakkir Manaf said his fighters were not affected by the legal process against their leaders in Sweden.
"We are committed to pursuing our goal to liberate Aceh from Indonesian occupation, either through peace talks or military means. We are also committed to pursuing armed struggle in accordance with the Hague and the Geneva Conventions, although we are yet to sign them," he said.
In Jakarta, the Supreme Court rejected on Friday the appeals of five GAM negotiators, an Acehnese woman activist, two referendum supporters and an Acehnese lecturer.
The Supreme Court upheld the lower court's guilty verdicts against the nine, saying the local court had solid evidence to back its verdicts.
"We rejected the appeals because we consider the Aceh High Court presented the correct arguments," said Justice Iskandar Kamil.
Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba, GAM's chief negotiator, was sentenced to 15 years in jail, while negotiators Tengku Muhamad Lampo Awe, Tengku Kamaruzzaman, Nashiruddin Ahmad and Amni bin Ahmad Marzuki Mahmud received 13 years each.
Activist Cut Nur Asikin is serving an 11-year jail term. She was a member of the Srikandi Aceh women's organization, but security authorities accused her of also leading GAM's female armed wing, Inong Balee.
Muhammad Nazar and Reza Pahlevi, the chairman and deputy chairman of the Aceh Referendum Information Center, were sentenced to five years and three years in jail respectively for defaming the government.
A former lecturer at state Syiah Kuala University, Irwandy Yusuf, was jailed for nine years for serving as a GAM interpreter.
Nazar and some 140 other convicted rebels were moved to prisons in Java earlier this year, including the Nusa Kambangan maximum security prison in Central Java.