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Papuan student jailed for resisting arrest in Yogyakarta
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Dozens of Papuan students stage a rally in support of Obby Kogoya in front of the Yogyakarta District Court on July 27. (JP/Bambang Muryanto)
O
bby Kogoya, 22, a Papuan student in Yogyakarta, has been sentenced to jail for resisting arrest by police officers during a protest in July last year.
Yogyakarta District Court sentenced Obby to four months’ imprisonment suspended for one year during a hearing on Thursday.
The judges said the Papuan activist was found guilty of committing violence against police officers, a violation Article 212 of the Criminal Code (KUHP).
“The defendant does not need to serve his four-month imprisonment but if he breaks the law during his one-year probation, he must serve his jail sentence,” presiding judge Wiwik Wisnuningdyah said.
Obby, deputy coordinator of the Tolikara Student Group in Yogyakarta, is now the first Papuan student in the City of Students to have received a prison sentence because of political activism.
Obby refused to obey police orders when they asked him to stop his motorcycle on his way to the Kamasan Papuan Student Boarding House compound on Jl. Kusumanegara, Yogyakarta, to attend a peaceful rally to celebrate the Papuan People’s Free Choice (Pepera) anniversary on July 15, 2016.
The sentence was lower than that demanded by prosecutors, who sought a six-month sentence suspended for one year for the Respati Yogyakarta University (Unriyo) student.
Obby, via his lawyer Emanuel Gobay from the Yogyakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH), said he would first consider the sentence before deciding whether to file an appeal. (ebf)
