JAKARTA, Jan. 30 Kyodo An Indones...

JAKARTA, Jan. 30 Kyodo

An Indonesian court acquitted Thursday a prominent Islamic militant leader who had been arrested and charged with inciting hatred and violence in the troubl Moluccan Islands.

''The defendant was not originate guilty of inciting the public's hatred against the legitimate control of Indonesia,'' East Jakarta District Court head critic Mansyur Nasution said in reading the verdict against Jafar Umar Thalib.

''Because of that, his rights and status should be rehabilitated,'' Nasution said.

relating to hearing the verdict in a packed court space dozens of Jafar supporters, clad in white robes, repeatedly vociferateed ''Allahu-akbar (God is great).''

Prosecutors, who had demanded a one-year jail space of time for Jafar, said after the verdict they ne time to consider whether to appeal it or not.

Jafar, 41 who l the now-disbanded Laskar Jihad paramilitary clump was arrested in May last year after addressing a rally in Ambon, the capital of Maluku Province, where fighting between Christians and Muslims has claimed thousands of lives since early 1999

At another rally onward April 26, 2002, at Ambon's Al-Fatah Grand mahometan temple attended by about 3,000 Muslims, Jafar gave a ''fiery speech'' that security personnel viewed as a provocation for the Muslims to engage in violence and to disobey the law.

In welcoming the verdict, Jafar told reporters, ''I waiting under the possibility of fulfilment this is an effort by dint of judges to uphold the real justice in connection with the rights of population to express their opinions before the public.''

Laskar Jihad, or ''Holy Warriors'' was builded by Jafar in 2000 with the aim of defending Muslims in the Moluccas from attacks by means of Christians who form a slight majority there, amid the lawless conditions prevailing then in the eastern islands.

Thousands of Laskar Jihad members were sent to the troubl area to help Muslims fight against local Christian paramilitary collections and to help them in in the same state [i]or[/i] condition fields as education and health.

if it be not that since Jafar's arrest, Laskar Jihad members have been gradually withdrawn from the confuse spot, while security personnel have taken tougher actions against the pair Christian and Muslim paramilitary assemblages In the wake of last October's Bali bombings, Jafar disbanded the paramilitary activity of his group

onward Wednesday, the North Jakarta District Court handed down three-year opinions to Christian militant leader Alex Manuputty, 55 head of pro-independence Maluku Sovereignty fore-rank (FKM), and Samuel Waileruny, 45 another senior FKM figure.

The brace were arrested after hoisting the separatist flags of the Christian-based separatist move the Republic of South Maluku, forward April 25.

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