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Witnesses claim '€˜unaware'€™ of Bourrat'€™s and Dandois'€™ journalistic activities

Three witnesses presented by prosecutors during the follow-up trial session of two French journalists, Marie Valentine Bourrat and Thomas Charles Dandois, at the Jayapura district court on Tuesday, said they never saw either of the two journalists conducting journalistic activities

Nethy Dharma Somba (The Jakarta Post)
Jayapura
Tue, October 21, 2014

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Witnesses claim '€˜unaware'€™ of Bourrat'€™s and Dandois'€™ journalistic activities

T

hree witnesses presented by prosecutors during the follow-up trial session of two French journalists, Marie Valentine Bourrat and Thomas Charles Dandois, at the Jayapura district court on Tuesday, said they never saw either of the two journalists conducting journalistic activities.

Areki Wanimbo, one witness who is also a Lanny tribe chieftain in Wamena, admitted that the two defendants, accompanied by two local residents, Dominikus Sorabut and Theo Hesegem, visited his house in Wamena on Aug. 6.

Areki said he did not know the purpose of the journalists'€™ visit to his house. They did not conduct an interview or take photographs.

'€œI refused to talk with them. It was only Dominikus who talked with me,'€ he said.

Shortly after they arrived at his home, Areki said, Dominikus asked him to explain the latest development in the security situation in Lanny Jaya, about which he admitted that he had received short messages on shooting incidents in the area.

Areki said Dominikus later asked whether he and the two French journalists could go to Lanny Jaya. '€œI said no because the situation there was unsafe. There should be no more victims,'€ said Areki.

Two other witnesses, Frengky Nalenan and Rausus Octavianus Makabori, who are Jayapura immigration officers, said they knew the suspects were foreign journalists only from the press cards both had.

However, both Nalenan and Makabori said they never directly saw the two suspects conducting journalistic activities.

Bourrat and Dandois were arrested in Wamena on Aug. 6 and have been officially detained since Aug. 14 for allegedly breaching immigration rules. They went on trial on charges of '€œabusive use of entry visas'€ on Monday.

Human Rights Watch Asia deputy director Phelim Kine said Indonesia'€™s restrictions on access by foreign journalists and human rights monitors to Papua fostered a climate in which security forces could commit abuses out of the public eye.

'€œThe Indonesian government blocks international media from freely reporting in Papua by limiting access by foreign reporters to only those the government gives official permission to visit,'€ said Kine.

'€œThe government rarely approves such applications or indefinitely delays processing, hampering efforts by journalists and civil society groups to report on breaking events.'€ (ebf)(+++)

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