FIVE AUSTRALIANS IN MERAUKE WAITING FOR SUPREME COURT RULING

Jayapura, Papua, June 16 (ANTARA) - Five Australians who were convicted by a Merauke court last January for illegally entering the country in a private airplane are still waiting for a Supreme Court (MA) ruling on their case, a Merauke public prosecutor's office spokesman said.

The Merauke public prosecutor's office had until now yet to receive official information on the MA's decision on the appeal it had filed on the Jayapura high court's ruling overthrowing the five Australians' different prison sentences meted out by the Merauke district court last January 15, the spokesman, Sudiro Husodo said when contacted in Merauke by phone from Jayapura on Tuesday.

The Jayapura high court in its verdict on March 5, 2009 had instead ordered the five Australians to leave Indonesian territory immediately in their aircraft. However, the Merauke public prosecutor's office could not accept the high court's decision and filed an appeal on it with the Supreme Court in Jakarta.

Pending the MA's ruling, the five Australians had been placed under city arrest in Merauke, he said.
The Merauke district court had previously sentenced Henry Scott Bloxom, the airplane's pilot, to 3 years in jail and a fine of Rp50 million, while the plane's four passengers - Vera Scott Bloxom, Karen Burke, Hubert Hofer and Keith Rowald Morimer - got two years in prison plus a fine of Rp 25 million each.

The five arrived in Merauke's airport on September 12, 2008 in a V-68 airplane from Horne Island in Australia without the required visa, and their entry by plane was also not covered by the needed flight approval and security clearance.

Meanwhile, the five Australians' lawyer in Merauke, Ephraem Fanghoy, who was contacted separately said, he had received information that the MA in Jakarta had last June 10 decided to reject the Merauke public prosecutor's office's appeal on the Jayapura high court's verdict on the five Australians.

However, Fanghoy said, until Tuesday (June 26), his clients had not yet received a copy of the MA decision.

Sudiro Husodo said, "We, too, have not yet received the MA's ruling on our appeal so we still cannot do anything further with the five Australians," he said.