23/09/2019
Nineteen people were arrested in relation to the riot in Wamena on 23 September 2019. Four of them were taken into custody while still being treated at the hospital from gunshot wounds inflicted by the security forces. Arrests were made up to November 2019. Some of them were tried at the District Court in Biak. Six people remain behind bars as of the time that this report is published. Fourteen people arrested in October 2019 are included in this list because the riot was so severe that the tension was still high and that they would most likely not be arrested had there not been any riot on 23 September.
The Wamena political prisoners were part of a total of 135 political prisoners charged with non-treason charges. A hundred of them were prosecuted; 29 were charged, charges which remain; while six people have been put on the police’s wanted list. West Papuans refer to the people below as ‘anti-racist political prisoners’. Some of them did commit the acts when expressing their political views, while many others were subjected to torture to force them to confess to acts that they did not commit. All have been released except six people in Wamena.
