On 30 March 2021, a panel of judges at the Timika District Court sentenced Temianus Wandikbo (see photo, source: Jubi) to 16 months imprisonment for his alleged involvement in the killing of a foreign employee as regulated under Article 338 of the Indonesian Criminal Code (KUHP) in conjunction with Article 56 (1) KUHP. Members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN PB) attacked the office of mining company PT Freeport Indonesia in Kuala Kencana on 30 March 2020, killed one employee and injured two others with firearms during the incident. Temianus Wandikbo claims that the TPN PB members forced him to carry a bag with unknown content up the hill to a location near the crime site before he was allowed to return to his village. All witnesses testified at court that they did not see him during the shooting at the Freeport office.
The lawyers argued that the verdict does not consider the degree of their client’s involvement in the crime. According to their client, the TPN PB members had threatened to beat Temianus Wandikbo if he would have refused to carry the bag.
Similar to the verdict against Indius Sambom, another defendant sentenced to 20 months imprisonment about the same case, the lawyers assessed that the panel had found both defendants guilty without sufficient evidence for their engagement in a criminal offence. The defendant considers appealing against the verdict.
