The Jakarta Post
Sunday, October 12, 2003

BANDA ACEH: The Banda Aceh district court on Saturday sentenced

a student activist from Aceh, where government forces are fighting seperatists, to three years in jail for planning to stage a rally last year.

Judges said Reza Pahlevi, a student with the state Ar-Raniry Islamic Institute here, was guilty of "airing and displaying hatred and insult" towards the Indonesian government while planning the rally in December 2002.

Pahlevi, who has been detained since May, had been accused of illegaly organizing the event in Aceh's capital Banda Aceh to protest the arrival of peace monitors from the Philippines on Dec. 23.

Jakarta and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) reached aninternationally-mediated ceasefire agreement in December last year, leading to a brief but shaky truce in GAM's 27-year-old battle for independence in the oil and gas-rich province.

The Indonesian government on May 19 launched an all-out attempt to crush GAM after last-ditch talks to save the peace deal collapsed in Tokyo.

Prosecutors, who had recommended four years jail for Pahlevi, said he and others had allegedly carried two banners which read "Peaceful Indonesia means freedom for Aceh", and "Aceh is a killing field", during the botched rally.

Commenting on the alleged banners, chief judge Syaiful Azwir said the 22-year-old student had "pestered the integrity of the Indonesian government who was trying to solve the Aceh conflict through peaceful means."

A lawyer for Pahlevi said he would appeal the sentence.

The Banda Aceh district court will next week issue a verdict for five GAM negotiators on trial for terror and treason.