Jayapura, Jubi – International Spokesperson of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) Victor Yeimo, who is a defendant of an alleged treason, underwent another hearing on Tuesday, January 31, 2023 at the Jayapura District Court.
At the trial led by chief judge Mathius with member judges Andi Asmuruf and Linn Carol Hamadi, the public prosecutor presented a witness named Melkianus Clemens Ruwayari.
However, when questioned, the witness said he did not know or he had forgotten a lot of times. The defendant’s legal counsel therefore considered the witness to be unqualified as he did not bring any information.
“The witness presented only knew a certain information through a video, even when in the minutes of examination there were about five Youtube links. And then he admitted he signed the minutes of examination without reading it first,” said the defendant’s legal counsel, Emanuel Gobay. That way, Gobay added, there was a fabrication of testimony in the minutes of examination.
“Our guess is that this witness was forced to confess,” he said.
However, he was grateful that the witness said he did not know about the information written in the minutes of examination, which presented the minutes of examination as nonsensical.
Gobay further reminded the investigators within the police to uphold professionalism in taking minutes of examination.
Gobay was actually impressed when the witness, who is a Papuan, said he strongly disagreed with racism. He said he would be upset if during the trial he received a certain racist statement.
“This is something interesting, because this trial is related to racism and we also want to ensure that in this trial there are no racist acts in the criminal justice system,” he said.
Meanwhile, Victor Yeimo admitted that the most difficult thing in the racism case was not about him going to jail or being prosecuted in court but the common task to eliminate the racist paradigm that had been internalized among the authorities for a long time.
“It affects the dignity of humanity. Papuans too, we can only fight racism when we erase any racial and religious boundaries between us and the rest of the Indonesian people,” he said.
“We cannot fight racism when we still have racial sentiment within us. This is a common task that we must continue to try, the disease of racism in the brain of the ruler is what we must fight together peacefully and with dignity,” Yeimo added. (*)
