Indonesia seeks 20 yrs jail for Christian beheadings

JAKARTA, Feb 19 (Reuters) Indonesian prosecutors today sought a 20-year jail sentence for the main defendant in the beheadings of three Christian schoolgirls from religiously divided Central Sulawesi province.

Prosecutors said Muslim militant Hasanuddin masterminded the beheadings of the Christian girls in 2005 to avenge the killings of Muslims during three years of communal violence in Central Sulawesi's Poso region.

About 2,000 people from both communities died in the violence before a peace pact was signed in 2001, and sporadic attacks and fighting have continued since.

Poso has been tense since the execution of three Christian militants in September over their role in the massacres of Muslims at a boarding school in 2000.

Chief prosecutor Payaman said that during a meeting to plan the attack on the schoolgirls Hasanuddin told his accomplices killing Christians was an act of charity.

''The defendant asked (accomplices) to hunt for heads of Christians as gifts for Lebaran, arguing that Christians have done the same to Muslims,'' Payaman told the panel of judges at the Central Jakarta district court. Lebaran is a Muslim holiday.

He said the prosecution did not demand the maximum sentence of death because Hasanuddin had expressed remorse during the trial and the families of the victims had forgiven him.

The trial will resume next Monday.

The beheadings triggered an outcry across Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, and beyond. The Vatican described the attack as barbaric.

Two other men are on trial for involvement in the killings while another man who has confessed to having swing the machete that killed one of the girls is in police custody.

The defendants are being tried under Indonesia's anti-terrorism laws.

One of the four girls who was attacked was wounded but managed to escape and report what had happened.

In January, 14 people, one of them a policeman, were killed during gunbattles between security forces and suspected Islamic activists linked to Southeast Asia's main militant group Jemaah Islamiah.

On Friday, police in Central Sulawesi said security forces were on highest alert following warnings militants may be planning attacks.

Around 85 per cent of Indonesia's 220 million people follow Islam, giving the country the world's largest Muslim population, but some eastern regions have large Christian populations.

Most Indonesian Muslims are moderates but there is a radical fringe that has been increasingly vocal and media-savvy.

REUTERS SP DS1312