French journalists held in Papua 'likely to face trial'
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Two French journalists arrested in Indonesia's Papua while reporting on the separatist movement are likely to go on trial, their lawyer said yesterday, with the pair facing up to five years in jail.
Thomas Dandois and Valentine Bourrat were detained at the start of August while making a documentary for Franco-German television channel Arte in the restive eastern region.
They are accused of breaking immigration laws – as they had tourist, not journalist, visas – and police said previously if found guilty they could be jailed for up to five years.
Indonesia is deeply sensitive about journalists covering Papua, where a low-level insurgency against the central government has simmered for decades, and rarely grants visas for foreigners to report independently in the region.
Foreign reporters detained for illegal reporting in Papua have in the past been swiftly deported. However Aristo Pangaribuan, the lawyer for the French journalists, said yesterday that a trial was looking likely.
“There is a huge possibility that both of them will go into trial,” he said in an e-mail.
Gardu Ditiro Tampubolon, the immigration chief in Jayapura, the capital of Papua province, said there was “strong evidence” against the pair.
