Prosecutors seek five years for FKM leaders
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
State prosecutors sought on Thursday a five-year sentence each for two leaders of the Maluku Sovereignty Front (FKM) who were charged with treason against the state.
FKM Chairman Alexander Hermanus Manuputty, 55, and the front's legislative leader Wailerruny Samuel, 45, maintained innocence while their team of lawyers intimated that the trial was rigged.
Prosecutor Herman Koedoeboen stated during a court session at the North Jakarta District Court that his team had secured the case and convincingly found the two guilty of violating Article 106 of the Criminal Code on treason.
The article carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
"The defendants carried out an act of subversion with intent to divide the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia," Koedoeboen said at the hearing, which was presided over by Judge I Wayan Padang.
The prosecutors weighed the defendants' 30 years of serving the country as civil servants as a mitigating factor.
As for compounding factors, the defendants' act of subversion had the potential to cause disintegration, besides which it had ruined the country's image among the international community.
"Moreover, the defendants never showed remorse and had hampered the trial by giving unreasonable statements," the prosecutor said.
Granted an opportunity to respond to the sentence, Manuputty challenged the prosecutors, saying, "Five years or twenty years (imprisonment), I'm ready, because I'm sure that I did the right thing. The trial is only twisting the facts and the truth."
Manuputty and Samuel have been accused of establishing an illegal organization and hoisting a separatist flag during the celebration of the 52nd anniversary of the South Maluku Republic on April 25.
Manuputty, a doctor, was arrested in April by dozens of armed police and military personnel who stormed his home in Ambon.
The panel of judges decided to adjourn the hearing until Dec. 23 to hear the defendants' and their lawyers' argument, despite the latter's request to postpone the hearing until January to give the defendants time to celebrate Christmas with their families.
Lawyer Paskalis Pieters later filed an objection with the head of the district court and also submitted a request for a new panel of judges.
"We no longer have trust in the current judges because the hearing is obviously under pressure to be wrapped up soon. How can we make a defense on a political case in only four days? The judges are unable to be neutral and fair in trying this case," he told reporters after the hearing.