Globe-trotting Pole accused of plotting revolt with Papuan rebels
Traveller faces 20 years in Indonesian prison over ‘weak’ treason claims
To the Indonesian government, the 39-year-old factory worker and globe-trotting Polish traveller is a danger to the state, a man who plotted with shadowy gunmen to foment revolt in isolated eastern jungles.
But to his supporters, Jakub Skrzypski is just an idealistic tourist with no money to his name, a man with an oddball combination of sympathies for right-wing and liberation causes. Even Indonesian police said it is unlikely Skrzypski could have arranged the arms deal they said he promised to make with rebels.
But Skrzypski, who is charged with treason, still faces up to 20 years in prison if he is found guilty. His detention was extended by 40 days on September 17 as police prepare their case against him.
He was arrested in Wamena in Papua province in late August along with four Papuans who police said had ammunition and described as linked to “armed criminal groups” – the authorities’ usual description of Papuan independence fighters.
“The true jungle is in Papua, and I’ve been there, among lizards, mosquitoes, leeches” and other stuff, Skrzypski wrote on Facebook while on the second of back-to-back trips to the region in July and August.
