11 Nov 2004

Six police in Indonesia's Papua face trial on illegal logging charge

10:17 am on 11 November 2004

Six police officers including a former police chief from the Indonesian province of Papua are to go on trial charged with helping to run an illegal logging operation.

As our correspondent Chris Holm reports from Jakarta, all six have been detained awaiting a trial date.

"The Papua prosecutor's office said its case against the men was now complete. The officers, who were from the remote Sorong area, were charged with forging documents after a boat full of smuggled timber was seized in 2002."

Authorities handed over the timber to police and it later disappeared. The men could face a fine and a maximum of six months in jail if found guilty.