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Sulawesi schoolgirl killers jailed
Indonesian court finds three Muslim men guilty of beheading schoolgirls in 2005.
Last Modified: 21 Mar 2007 08:37 GMT

Hasanuddin told the court he took part in the
a
ttack to avenge Muslim deaths [EPA/file]

Three Muslim men have been jailed after being found guilty of beheading three Christian schoolgirls on the island of Sulawesi in 2005.
 
Hasanuddin, the alleged ringleader of the attack, was jailed for 20 years by a court in Indonesia, while two other men were sentenced to 14 years for their role in the killings.
Prosecutors said Hasanuddin ordered the killings to avenge the deaths of Muslims during an outbreak of sectarian violence in the troubled district of Poso.
 
He was accused of buying the machetes used in the attacks and was named as the author of a note left at the scene warning of more killings.
Hasanuddin had faced a maximum sentence of death and said before the verdict that he was ready to face the firing squad.
 
During his trial Hasanuddin admitted being involved in the killings, but denied masterminding the attacks.
 
'Revenge'
 
He also asked the families of the schoolgirls for forgiveness.
 
"We are not cold-blooded killers," he told the central Jakarta district court in November. "We just wanted revenge."
 
More than 90 per cent of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslim, but the area around Poso is home to a roughly equal number of Muslims and Christians.
 
In December 1998, a drunken brawl between Muslim and Christian youths escalated into bloody clashes that left at least 1,000 people dead and forced tens of thousands more to flee.
 
A group of Roman Catholic men attacked an Islamic school two years later and killed up to 70 people.
 
A peace deal was agreed in 2002, but sectarian tensions around Poso flared again after the beheadings of the schoolgirls and religious tensions in the area remain high.
Source:
Agencies
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