Judges at the North Jakarta District Court have sentenced the Papuan defendant Indius Sambom (see photo, source: Jubi) to 20 months imprisonment for violating Article 1 of Emergency Law No 12/1951 on the illegal possession of firearms and explosives on 10 March 2021. They argued that Ivan Sambom allowed members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-PB) to stay overnight inside his house. Previously, the public prosecutor had sought a sentence of three years for Sambom. According to Indius Sambom’s lawyer, facts at court showed that the police had neither found TPN PB members nor ammunition inside Sambom’s house during the arrest. She demanded her client to be acquitted. Indius Samabom has 14 days to appeal against the verdict.
On 30 March 2020, members of the TPN PB attacked the Freeport office in Kuala Kencana, Mimika Regency, and killed New Zealand citizen Graeme Thomas Wall. Joint security forces arrested Ivan Sambom at his house in Iwaka village, Mimika Regency, on 9 April 2020 and charged him with Article 1 of Emergency Law No 12/1951 and Article 106 of the Indonesian Criminal Code (KUHP) on treason. The Papuan police claimed that Indius Sambom was acting as an informant for the TPN PB. The public prosecutor later removed the treason charges due to a lack of evidence. Nevertheless, the trial was transferred to Jakarta because of security concerns and launched at the North Jakarta District Court on 27 October 2020.
