Jubilant crowds celebrate the release of prominent Papuan political prisoner Filep Karma.
A high-profile West Papuan dissident leader has been released from prison after more than a decade behind bars for raising a flag.
Political prisoner Filep Karma walked free from jail in Papua, Indonesia last week, after spending 15 years in prison — charged with treason — for raising the banned West Papuan independence flag.
According to a Survival International article, Karma, 56, was arrested in 2004 after leading a peaceful demonstration in West Papua, calling for independence from Indonesia and raising the “Morning Star flag.”
He was named by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience. His detention was condemned as “arbitrary” by the United Nations.
In August this year when the government of Indonesia offered him a pardon in exchange for admission of guilt.
Amnesty International wrote, Karma refused because he felt it would…
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