im Jahre 2014 wurden 4 Studenten bei einer Demonstration durch Sicherheitskräfte getötet. Der Fall galt lange als Testfall für eine neue Menschenrechtspolitik. In diesem Jahr wurde nun eine Person vor Gericht gestellt und nach einen kurzen Verfahren frei gesprochen.
Der Direktor von Amnesty Indonesien, Usman Hamid kommentierte. “Das Urteil bestätigt all die Zweifel, die die Opfer und ihre Familien an dem Gerichtsverfahren geäußert haben; dass es sich bei dem Gerichtsverfahren nur um einen ‘Schauprozess’ handelt, der keine wirkliche Gerechtigkeit, Wahrheit und Wiedergutmachung bringen würde.”
Indonesia: Verdict in 2014 Paniai tragedy a ‘slap in the face’ for victims
“The ruling confirms all the doubts that victims and their families have cast over the legal proceedings; that the judicial process is just a ‘show trial’ that would not deliver genuine justice, truth, and redress.”
“The fact that authorities only brought to trial one military officer whose authorities to command soldiers on the ground was uncertain is questionable. In the first place, it is hard to believe that the defendant was the only military personnel responsible for the atrocities.”
“The defendant’s acquittal serves as a reminder that military officers suspected of criminal responsibility in the shootings, including the direct perpetrators and military commanders and other superiors who knowing that their forces were committing or were about to commit those atrocities, failed to take all measures within their powers to prevent or repress their commission, are still at large. Justice will never be served if impunity remains.”
“Indonesian authorities should promptly reopen the criminal investigation for Paniai shootings, so all persons suspected of criminal responsibility are promptly, effectively, thoroughly and impartially investigated and, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, prosecuted in fair trials before a criminal court.”
Background
On 8 December 2022, Indonesia’s Human Rights Court in Makassar, South Sulawesi Province, acquitted Isak Sattu, a former military officer, of all charges of crimes against humanity of murder based on command responsibility in the 2014 Paniai case in Papua Province. The defendant served as a liaison officer at the Military District Command (Kodim) in Paniai Regency during the time of the incident.
The Paniai Case covers two separate incidents in which the Indonesian security forces allegedly killed four individuals and injured 21 others in Paniai Regency on December 7 and 8, 2014.
In the verdict, the five-panel bench confirmed that the murders committed by military personnel against civilians in Paniai were “systematic attacks” and thus constituted crimes against humanity. However, the court argued that Isak, as a liaison officer, had no effective authority to command and control the forces when the shootings occurred on 8 December 2014. At that time, the court said, the command was still with the Commander of Enoratoli Sub-District Military Command’s (Koramil) Office even though he was not at the office when the incident happened.
Two of five judges in the panel gave dissenting opinions, arguing that the fact that the defendant was the highest-ranking military officer at the Enarotali Koramil’s Office implies that he could be held criminally responsible for his failure to take the necessary measures to oversee and to secure knowledge of the conduct of the troops, or to at least inform the violations to the higher office to be investigated.
Victims and families of victims of the 2014 Paniai case have previously criticized the legal proceeding, on the grounds that the Attorney General’s Office brought only one suspect to trial while no charges have been brought against high-ranking security officials and those suspected of being the direct perpetrators. They also refused to take part in the trial at the human rights court.