Jail official gets 4 years in prison

Jail official gets 4 years in prison

JAKARTA (JP): A prison official whose derogatory remarks
against Roman Catholicism sparked a communal riot in East Timor
last September will soon be spending time behind bars.

The Maliana District Court in Bobonaro regency, East Timor,
yesterday found Zakarias Sake, an official of the local
correctional facility, guilty of blasphemy.

He was sentenced to four years imprisonment, Antara reported.

The correctional facility warden and six inmates who testified
against him all said they heard him make the remarks, along with
fellow staffer Sanusi Abubakar, who has already been sentenced to
four years and 10 months imprisonment.

Zakarias pleaded innocent and insisted he only repeated
remarks that Sanusi had made earlier.

News of their insults against the dominant religion in East
Timor quickly spread to the rest of the town, and then to Dili
and other major towns in the province.

With the situation in East Timor already tense almost all year
round, the remarks sparked anger among East Timorese and they
took to the streets, attacking houses of non-endemic residents
and setting fire to mosques and Moslem schools.

Two people were killed in the riots and hundreds of migrants,
including teachers assigned to East Timor schools, fled the
province.

After hearing the verdict, Zakarias said he would think about
appealing against the sentence. Antara did not say in which
correctional facility Zakarias would serve his time. (emb)