Maluku pro-independence leaders freed on expiry of detention warrants

JAKARTA, Nov 10 (AFP) - Two Indonesian separatist leaders who had been held in jail pending an appeal against jail terms for subversion have been released after detention warrants expired, a report said Monday.

Alexander Hermanus Manuputty, head of the Maluku Sovereignty Front, and another leader Samuel Waeleruny left Tanggerang jail near Jakarta early Saturday, the Kompas newspaper said.

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An appeal court sentenced the two to four years in jail for subversion, adding a year to the three-year sentence passed by a lower court earlier this year.

The two are appealing to the Supreme Court.

Kompas said the detention warrant expired at midnight last Thursday.

Under Indonesian law, jail sentences do not necessarily have to be served until all appeals are exhausted. But judges can order the detention of defendants during the appeal process.

The head of Tanggerang jail, Didin Sudirman, could not be reached for comment and his staff declined comment.

Following the end of Dutch colonial rule, separatists proclaimed a Republic of South Maluku in the eastern island chain in 1950 and staged a revolt against newly independent Indonesia.

The rebellion was suppressed but activists, mainly in the Netherlands, pursued a failed campaign for international recognition. Supporters of the Maluku Sovereignty Front are mainly Christians.

Manuputty and Waeleruny had been arrested in Ambon in April last year after encouraging their followers to hoist separatist flags.

The independence movement is not believed to have widespread support among Christians in Maluku. But the government, which faces more serious separatist unrest in Aceh and Papua, is determined to crack down on any independence moves.

bs/sm/nj

Indonesia-Ambon