TAPOL condemns the demand by Prosecutors seeking seventeen and five years imprisonment respectively, for West Papuan activists Buchtar Tabuni and Irwanus Uropmabin.

These sentences are excessive and at best an attempt to make examples out of West Papuan political activists who are simply trying to exercise their civil and political rights. These rights are protected by international principles as well as Indonesia’s national Constitution.

West Papuans have been denouncing the injustice of these heavy sentences, as the racist perpetrators in Java who triggered the mass protests were either freed or only sentenced to 5, 7, and 10 months imprisonment.