Former East Timor Governor Acquitted
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JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of East Timor’s former governor for his role in the 1999 violence there, and he will be released within days, the ex-governor and media reports said today.
Jose Abilio Soares was the first -- and remains the only -- Indonesian official punished for the bloodshed that accompanied East Timor’s independence after a U.N.-sponsored referendum ended 24 years of Indonesian rule.
Vengeful Indonesian troops and militia proxies killed as many as 2,000 people and destroyed much of the tiny territory in the days after the vote. Soares’ release will dismay rights activists, who have called on Jakarta to punish those responsible.
Soares -- who is ethnic East Timorese -- was found guilty in 2002 and began serving a three-year sentence in July this year.
Media reports said the court, which sits behind closed doors, had ruled that he had no role in the violence.
“I should be out of here by Monday,” he said from prison, reasserting claims of innocence.
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