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Febriana Firdaus

Jakob Skrzypski left a stable job in Switzerland to travel through Indonesia last year. He visited Java, Sumatra and the tourist island of Bali before heading to the restive provinces of West Papua and Papua.
But three months ago, Indonesia authorities detained the 39-year-old Polish citizen in the Papuan capital of Jayapura. On January 15 this year, he was charged with treason.
He was the first foreigner in Indonesia to be charged with the offence, one that could see him spend 20 years in prison, if found guilty.
Skrzypski has been accused of plotting a coup with a pro-independence Papuan armed group and offering to help supply it weapons to overthrow the Indonesian government.
Skrzypski, who sports a bushy beard and has his hair tied back, has been held in a small, poorly-lit jail cell as he awaits trial in Wamena, an isolated town in Papua’s highlands.
A photograph seen by the South China Morning Post shows a jail cell with filthy streaks on the walls and a hand drawn sketch of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross.
“No freely available hot water. Washing water is dirty,” Skrzpski wrote in a letter to the Post, adding that he shared the cell with up to four other prisoners, and that he got one meal a day of rice and vegetables.

His court case is an unexpected twist in the long-running independence struggle between Papuans and the Indonesian government.
A low-level insurgency has simmered in the provinces, which share a border with Papua New Guinea, ever since the former Dutch colony came under Indonesian rule in the 1960s.
Papua declared itself an independent nation in 1961, but Indonesia took control of the resource-rich region by force in 1963. It officially annexed Papua in 1969 with a UN-backed vote, widely seen as a sham. The province was split into two in 2003 to become Papua and West Papua.
The pro-independence movement has little international backing, except for a small number of Pacific nations.
In his correspondence with the Post, Skrzypski described how Papua had “nurtured” his curiosity for some time, and that we wanted to visit.
He visited Papua’s urban centres of Sorong, Jayapura, Timika and Wamena, making friends in each place through social media.

“Papua is … virtually unknown, seldom ever mentioned in Europe. Since it’s very different from the other parts of Indonesia, it has been nurturing my curiosity for some time,” he wrote.
Skrzypski graduated from Warsaw University in Poland, worked in Britain, then studied at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, before getting a job there.
He had travelled to Indonesia several times, and also to Armenia, Myanmar and Iraq.
In August 2018, while he was in Wamena, the largest town in the highlands of Papua province, local police asked him to report to them.
[Papua] has been nurturing my curiosity for some time
Jakob Skrzypski
Skrzypski said he did so, accompanied by a man who was his tour guide.
He said police offered him a ticket to leave Indonesia, but he refused. They then asked the guide to stay at the police station, while they allowed Skrzypski to go back to the hotel.
The next day, the police picked up Skrzypski in the hotel and brought him to the Papuan capital of Jayapura, an hour from Wamena by flight, where he was arrested.
The guide was later freed.
According to Skrzypski, police accused him of joining the West Papua National Liberation Army, a militant group and one of four active separatist organisations.
They cited his online friendship with Simon Magal, a student with links to prominent West Papuan human rights activist Mama Yosepha Alomang, as evidence.
Mama Yosepha received international acclaim after she lobbied against American mining firm Freeport McMoRan, which has been accused of causing grave environmental damage in its decades-long operation of the giant Grasberg copper mine.
The National Liberation Army had also waged attacks against Freeport, saying that the province’s integration with Indonesia was a conspiracy between the government and the mining giant.

Skrzypski says he discussed Freeport with Simon.
But Jayapura police commissioner Ahmad M. Kamal said they had evidence from Facebook Messenger chats and video testimony from three pro-independence fighters that Skrzypski had expressed his support for the militant Papuan independence movement.
Magal was subsequently arrested and also charged with treason.
A statement issued by Skrzypski’s lawyer Latifa Anum Siregar and several human rights groups said police alleged the Polish citizen was an arms dealer and relied on photos of him holding guns as evidence.
But according to one of Skrzypski’s friends, the photos were taken in an indoor sport shooting range in Vaud, Switzerland, where he had been living.
The police also claimed to have confiscated more than 130 rounds of ammunition from Skrzypski and three Indonesian citizens.
Veronica Koman, a lawyer for the National Committee for West Papua (KNPB), which is campaigning for the national referendum, said police become paranoid when foreigners make contact with Papuans.
Access to the region for international media is limited.
“Based on my correspondence with [Skrzypski’s] family and close friends, he is just an adrenaline junkie tourist,” she said.
Tapol, an NGO monitoring human rights issues in Indonesia, described Skrzypski as an avid “extreme” traveller with a passion for other cultures, languages, and humanitarian issues.
In his letter, Skrzypski claimed access to his lawyer was obstructed and authorities were holding his trial in Wamena instead of the capital Jayapura where his case would get more attention from media and the diplomatic community.
He said he felt isolated and depressed, not knowing when he would have to go to court next.
To pass the time, he had been reading old copies of National Geographic magazines and books on Papuan culture.
“Every step of the investigation was held secretly. I was never informed of anything in advance. At least not by the police,” he wrote.
Police insisted this was not the case. During their investigation of Skrzypski, foreign ministry officials in Jakarta were kept in the loop and they communicated with the Polish embassy there, they said.
Skryzypski’s trial continues and his next court appearance is scheduled for January 29.


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Click to enlarge. SCMP

Jakob Skrzypski, who sports a bushy beard and has his hair tied back, has been held in a small, poorly-lit jail cell as he awaits trial. Photo: Febriana Firdaus

Indonesia charges Polish man with plotting Papua coup

Jakob Skrzypski in court. He is the first foreigner in Indonesia to be charged with treason Photo: Febriana Firdaus

Jakob Skrypski at his court hearing. Photo: Febriana Firdaus

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Southeast Asia

Polish citizen Jakob Skrzypski accused of joining the Papua National Liberation Army and offering to help supply it with weapons
Observers describe him as an avid ‘extreme’ traveller with a passion for other cultures, languages, and humanitarian issues


Polish citizen Jakob Skrzypski left a stable job to travel through Indonesia. On January 15, he became the first foreigner in the country to be charged with treason.
