15 Dec 2006

American woman says Papua trial was fair

4:17 pm on 15 December 2006

One of the victims of the August 2002 Timika killings in Indonesia's Papua province says the trial of Antonius Wamang was fair and transparent.

Denver-based Patsy Spier's husband Rick Spier, another American and an Indonesian man were killed in an ambush on their convoy.

A month ago, Wamang, a Papuan, was sentenced to life in prison for the murders.

After attending the entire four-month trial in Jakarta, Mrs Spier says she is satisfied justice has been served.

Although she says the defence lawyers failed to properly represent the defendants, they had every chance to tell the trial if they had been intimidated into making false statements.

Mrs Spier says the FBI is still investigating the killings and anyone with new evidence relating to them should come forward to them.