23 Apr 2013

Six West Papua National Committee members jailed for one year

4:19 am on 23 April 2013

Six members of the pro-independence West Papua National Committee, or KNPB, from Timika in the Indonesian region, have been jailed for one year.

They were sentenced on charges of carrying dangerous weapons and for treason, but their lawyers asserted the six were non violent activists and that no case had been proven against them.

They say they will lodge appeals against the sentence.

West Papuan media reporting on the trial have described the court decisions as farcical.

The six were arrested in October last year amid a crack down on KNPB activists by Indonesia's counter-terror unit Detachment 88.