National

GAM Leaders in Sweden to Be Tried This December
Friday, 27 August, 2004 | 18:21 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Stockholm Prosecutors Office head Tomas Lindstrand has said he hoped that the trial of Free Aceh Movement (GAM) Prime Minister Malik Mahmud and GAM foreign minister Zaini Abdullah could be held by this December.

A source of Tempo News Room said that Lindstrand and his team have been focusing on the translation process of hundreds of pages of documents from the Acehnese language into English.

“I think the trial could be held by the end of this year,” said this Tempo News Room source quoting Lindstrand’s statement by his cellular phone on Thursday (26/08).

The translated documents are believed to be strong evidence in the next trial process.

Lindstrand confiscated the documents when he conducted a raid on the residences of GAM President Hasan Tiro, Malik Mahmud and Zaini Abdullah.

Lindstrand also seized the laptop of Hasan Tiro, seven cellular phones, cash money amounting to US$10,000 and several other pictures and video cassettes containing the military training of GAM members in Aceh.

An academic from a European country started translating the documents on Monday (23/08).

Lindstrand told Tempo News Room separately that he has been focusing on the translation process of various documents related to the GAM leaders in Sweden.

This process is highly important in order to prove these GAM leaders’ involvement in the separatist movement in Aceh.

However, Lindstrand declined to reveal the measure he would take following the document translation process.

Mahmud and Abdullah have been named suspects for alleged violations of international law.

They were once detained for three days in mid-June 2004 and are now under city detention.

Meanwhile, Tiro is released from all charges due to his health reasons.

These GAM members are allegedly involved in various bombings in Indonesia including the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) building bombing on September 13, 2000, the Atrium Senen shopping center bombing on September 23, 2001 and the Graha Mal Cijantung bombing on July 1, 2002.

They also alleged to have been involved in the murder of several Acehnese figures, including Syiah Kuala University head Prof. Dayan Daud, the burning of at least six schools in Kuala and Nagan Raya in Aceh and the kidnapping of 243 civilians in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) province between December 2003 And February 2004. (Faisal Assegaff-Tempo News Room)