More political prisoners set to walk free today
More political prisoners set to walk free today
JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie signed release papers
yesterday for 16 young activists, including 15 East Timorese
prisoners and detainees, Minister of Justice Muladi said.
The President, through decree No. 85 dated yesterday, granted
amnesty to eight political prisoners sentenced by the courts for
their involvement in antigovernment protests, and dropped charges
against eight East Timorese political detainees.
They are all expected to be released today.
Seven of the eight prisoners are Timorese. They are: Cancio
Antoni H.G., Bendito Amaral, Thomas Agusto Coreia, Hermenegildo
Dacosta, Jose Gomes, Luis Pereira and Antonio Gusmao Freitas.
They are serving prison terms in East Timor.
The eighth is Coky Aritonang.
"Coky is now serving his sentence in Magelang prison and was
sentenced for insulting former president Soeharto," Muladi said
after meeting with Habibie at Bina Graha presidential office.
Meanwhile, the eight detainees whose charges were dropped are
Juvinal Dos Santos Monis, Fransisco de Deus, Domingos Da Silva,
Silverio Babtista Ximenes, Vicente Marques Da Crus, Bernadino
Simao, Paulo Silva Carvalho and Paulo Soares.
Just one week after replacing Soeharto in May, Habibie
released four political prisoners including labor activist
Muchtar Pakpahan and Soeharto's strong critic Sri Bintang
Pamungkas.
He also freed Nuku Suleiman, chairman of human rights group
Pijar Foundation, and Andi Syahputra, an activist from the
Alliance of Independent Journalist (AJI).
Habibie also dropped charges against Karlina Leksono, Gadis
Arivia Effendi and Wilasih Noviana from the Voice of Concerned
Mothers. They were taken to court for staging a street rally
without police permission.
"An interdepartment team is now conducting a comprehensive
study on all the other political detainees and prisoners," Muladi
said.
According to his records, there are at least 150 political
prisoners and detainees throughout the country.
As a follow-up to his pledge to improve the country's human
rights record, the President will ratify next week two United
Nations conventions on antitorture and on antirace
discrimination.
"I think this is very good for us in facing the future," said
the minister.
So far the government has been firmly against the release of
Timorese separatist leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao, whom
the government claims was sentenced on criminal charges, not
political ones. (prb)