Prosecutors want 18 years for key GAM negotiator
Prosecutors want 18 years for key GAM negotiator
Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh
State prosecutors have demanded an 18-year jail term for Free
Aceh Movement (GAM) head negotiator Teungku Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba
and 16 years for negotiation team member Teungku Nashiruddin bin
Ahmed.
The prosecutors told the Banda Aceh District Court on Tuesday
that both Sofyan and Nashiruddin were guilty of treason and
terrorism, charges that carry the maximum sentence of death.
"The defendants have carried out terrorist acts that create
uneasiness among Acehnese people and seek to separate Aceh from
Indonesia," prosecutor Muklish said.
Muklish said the two had taken part in destroying public
facilities and vital facilities through bombings and burnings,
shooting civilians and military personnel, kidnapping, killing,
extortion, and illegal possession of firearms.
"The defendants have shown no regret in the court," Muklish
said in a trial presided over by judge Maratuo Rambe.
The meeting was adjourned until Oct. 6 to listen to defense
pleas by the defendants and their lawyers.
GAM negotiators Sofyan, Nashirudin, Amni bin Ahmad Marzuki,
Teuku Kamaruzzaman, and Teungku Muhammad bin Usman were arrested
when the military emergency was imposed in the troubled province
on May 19.
Prosecutors are due to deliver sentence recommendations for
the three other negotiators on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the military said five separatist rebels were
killed Tuesday in the latest clashes in Aceh province, where an
anti-rebel campaign is in its fifth month.
Aceh military operation spokesman Lt. Col. Ahmad Yani Basuki
said troops on Tuesday morning shot dead two guerrillas during a
raid in the Batee area of Pidie district.
He said soldiers also gunned down three other rebels in East
Aceh's area of Peureulak and Kejuruan Muda.
Last week, military leaders said in Jakarta that more than 900
GAM rebels had been killed since a major operation began on May
19. Sixty-six members of the security forces have died.
More than 1,800 other rebels had been arrested or had
surrendered in the operation to crush what the military initially
estimated to be 5,000 guerrillas.
The military said last week that 304 civilians had also died
but did not say who was responsible for the deaths.
Government and rebel negotiators last December struck an
internationally mediated ceasefire that led to a brief but shaky
truce in GAM's 26-year-old battle for independence of the oil-
rich province.
When the deal faltered the Indonesian military launched an
all-out attempt to crush GAM after final crisis talks in Tokyo
collapsed.