Aceh activist jailed for sedition

Troops searching separatists burnt a village on Monday

Indonesian prosecutors have sentenced a pro-independence activist in Aceh to 10 months imprisonment for sedition, in a case criticised by human rights activists.

It's a very big setback for the reform process

Amnesty International

Muhammad Nazar, 27, was found guilty of spreading enmity against the state by the court in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.

The judges said he had not helped himself during the trial by clinging to his political beliefs.

The student leader - arrested in November after organising an independence rally - has been declared a prisoner of conscience by the human rights organisation Amnesty International.

Nazar was arrested in November

The London-based organisation told BBC News Online that Nazar was sentenced under articles in criminal law which violate international human rights standards on the freedom of expression.

"It's a very big setback for the reform process," Amnesty spokesman Mark Allison said.

"It's worrying that it's happening now, when [government] troops are moving into Aceh."

The continuing violence between troops and separatist rebels in the troubled province has left more than 300 dead this year.

'Colonialism'

Chief judge Farida Hanum criticised Nazar's use of phrases such as "the nation of Aceh" and "Indonesian neo-colonizers."

"The defendant has used the court as a platform to convey his political ideology," the judge said.

Achenese have been fighting for a separate state for years

Nazar said he would appeal against the conviction and described the trial as "an extension of Indonesia's colonialism."

Nazar, who is the chairman of the Information Centre for an Aceh Referendum, was arrested after organising pro-referendum mass rallies.

Amnesty has said that it was "becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between the current government and that of [former] President Suharto."

"Agents of the state are resorting to the same tactics of intimidating, imprisoning, torturing and killing those suspected of opposing Jakarta's rule," it said in a recent statement.

Gas fields plea

On Tuesday, Indonesia asked the US company ExxmonMobil to prepare resumption of its gas field in Aceh.

The firm cited security fears due to the violence for the shut down in production earlier this month.

Worried about the economic impact of the closure, the government has deployed more than 2,000 men to guard the company's fields and facilities.