JAKARTA ~ The leader of an Indonesian sect who had controversially claimed he was a prophet was jailed for four years for contempt against Islam on Wednesday.

Ahmad Mushaddeq alias Abu Salam, 63, leader of the Al Qiyadah Al Islamiyah sect, was “guilty of showing contempt in public against a religion recognized by the state,” Judge Zahrul Rabaid told a packed courtroom.

The verdict was greeted by religious chanting by hundreds of followers who had crammed South Jakarta District Court since early in the morning. A police officer said 2,000 people were at the venue.

Mushaddeq’s claim violated a central Islamic tenet that the Prophet Muhammad is the last prophet and will not be followed by any other messengers from God.

His group was proscribed as “deviant” by the country’s top clerics last year, echoing the same charge levelled against the Ahmadiya sect this year.

Mushaddeq, who told the court he would appeal, was whisked into a police detention car that left immediately for prison.

Mushaddeq handed himself in to police along with six other followers in October, and has since publicly retracted his claim to being a prophet.

About 90 percent of Indonesia’s population are Muslim. Most practice a tolerant form of the religion.

Anger over Ahmadiya drew protesters on to the streets last week and the group has filed for police protection after receiving death threats.

DILI, East Timor ~ East Timor’s chief prosecutor headed to Indonesia on Tuesday to take custody of three men arrested over assassination attempts against the country’s leadership, the Timorese president said.

President Jose Ramos-Horta, who was shot by rebels outside his Dili home on February 11, said that even without an extradition treaty, the men “should be sent back” as they had entered Indonesia illegally.

He said the Indonesian government had been cooperating in efforts to bring the wanted men to justice.

“So for those intending to hide in Indonesia, don’t dream that they (Indonesia) will protect them,” he said.

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JAKARTA ~ A court ordered the extradition of an alleged Australian child-sex offender to his home country on Thursday.

A panel of judges agreed to the prosecutors’ demand that Charles Alfred Barnett, 66, should be returned to Australia to face justice there.

The South Jakarta District Court, in a ruling read out by Judge Syaefulah Sumar, has decided to “grant the demand of the prosecutor that Charles Alfred Barnett be extradited.”

“… the defendant himself has admitted that he had engaged in (sexual) assaults against several persons in Australia years ago and has not yet faced trial,” he said.

Barnett’s lawyer Bernard Tifaona said that since the court decision could not be appealed, “we will send a letter to the justice and human rights minister demanding that the extradition be cancelled.”

Barnett was arrested during a raid on his home in the Jakarta satellite city of Depok on February 20 at the demand of Australia through its embassy here.

The Australian government is seeking to prosecute him over alleged sexual offences he committed against a number of children aged between 12 and 17 from 1977 to 1994, prosecutor Sigit Januari Pribadi said.

Barnett has lived in Indonesia for 12 years, where he has taught English and owned a garment business.

JAKARTA ~ Police swooped on rights activists protesting against Chinese rule in Tibet outside the venue of the Olympic torch relay in Jakarta on Tuesday, detaining at least nine including a Dutchman.

The protesters were carrying banners reading “No human rights, no Olympics” and chanting “A united people will be invincible” when police moved in, dragging nine away for questioning.

The demonstration outside the national stadium came three hours ahead of the 2:00pm start of the heavily restricted relay event that was closed to the public amid Chinese anger at protests against its rights record.

Eight of those detained, including four members of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, were released after being questioned over their permits to protest.

The Dutchman was taken to Jakarta police headquarters, according to a member of his rights organization.

Another two people wearing Chinese Muslim headgear were also taken by the police as they unfurled a banner reading “Chinese Muslims welcome Beijing Olympics.” They were also quickly released.

The rights activists, wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with “Free Tibet,” were unfazed by the arrests and chanted “peaceful action, peaceful action” in response to the police intervention.

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JAKARTA ~ A court sentenced two leaders of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) group, blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings, to 15 years’ jail on Monday and slammed the Islamist outfit as a “terrorist organization.”

Self-proclaimed Jemaah Islamiyah leaders Abu Dujana and Zarkasih were sentenced to 15 years each at separate trials at the South Jakarta District Court.

Both men were arrested in separate police raids on the island of Java in June last year. They were found guilty of assisting terrorists and possessing, storing and moving weapons destined for terror acts.

The charges under anti-terrorism laws in the world’s largest Muslim nation did not relate specifically to the bombings of crowded bars in Bali that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

But JI is accused of organizing the coordinated attacks and one of the alleged terrorists Dujana was convicted of protecting was Malaysian national Noordin Mohammad Top, one of the suspected Bali masterminds.

Top remains at large and is believed to be hiding somewhere in Indonesia. His colleague and compatriot Azahari Husin was shot dead in a raid in East Java in 2005.

Three men accused of carrying out the bombings - Amrozi, Ali Ghufron and Imam Samudra - face death by firing squad after being convicted of their roles in the attack.

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JAKARTA ~ Greenpeace called this week for a moratorium on the expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia’s rainforests and peatlands, warning that soaring world demand is creating an environmental crisis.

It said a two-year investigation into the health of the country’s rainforests and peatlands showed “wholesale” destruction driven by demand from food, cosmetic and biofuel companies.

“Given the urgent nature of the crisis the only solution for the global climate, the regional environment, the wildlife and the forest-dependent communities … is a moratorium on oil palm expansion into rainforest and peatland areas,” the environment watchdog said in a statement.

It accused Anglo-Dutch food group Unilever, one of the largest palm oil corporate consumers in the world, of being behind the destruction of forest and peatland in Central Kalimantan province on Borneo island.

It said Unilever annually consumed 1.3 million tons of palm oil or palm oil derivatives with over half coming from Indonesia.

“Unilever has failed to use its power to lead the palm oil sector toward sustainability, either through its own palm oil purchasing or through its role as leader of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil,” Greenpeace said.

Satellite data shows Unilever suppliers are behind the rapid expansion of oil palm plantations in Central Kalimantan, where orangutans are on the brink of extinction, it said.

The destruction of Indonesia’s forests is seen as a major contributor to global warming and climate change.

Indonesia is likely to overtake Malaysia as the world’s top palm oil producer in 2007, due to the dramatically increased area under plantation.

Malaysia is expected to produce 15.82 million tons of crude palm oil in 2007 while Indonesia’s production estimate for the same year stands at 16.4 million tons.

Malaysia and Indonesia together produce 85 percent of the world’s palm oil which is enjoying a boom on the back of strong global demand and tight supply.

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JAKARTA ~ A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck off East Timor on Saturday but there was no tsunami threat and no immediate reports of damage, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said. The quake, which struck at 10:12am, was centered about 81 kilometers northeast of the East Timorese capital Dili and about 40 kilometers south of Indonesia’s Wetar island, the agency said. The tremor, which was 10 kilometers deep, had no tsunami potential, the agency added. The Indonesian archipelago sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where continental plates meet and cause frequent seismic and volcanic activity. Indonesia was the nation worst hit by the earthquake-triggered Asian tsunami in December 2004, which killed 168,000 people in the country’s Aceh province.