On December 19th prosecutors sought a five-year prison term for two leaders of the Maluku Sovereignty Front. The defendants, Alex Manuputty and Samuel "Sammy" Waileruny, were charged with subversion for setting up an illegal organization and raising the banned flag of the Republic of South Maluku. The charges carry a maximum life sentence in prison.

Both men carried out "an act of subversion with the intention of dividing the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia," Chief Prosecutor Herman Kudubun told the North Jakarta district court. Judges are not required to follow the sentence recommendation when they issue their verdict in the case. Independence supporters declared a republic in the Moluccas in 1950 and staged a revolt against newly independent Indonesia. The rebellion was suppressed but activists, mainly in the Netherlands, launched a failed campaign for international recognition.

Brig. General Edward Aritonang, a spokesman for the Bali bombings investigative team, said here that there were strong indications that Amrozi and his accomplices had been planning to bomb other places besides Bali. "After conducting the bombing in Kuta, Bali, last October 12th, they planned to carry out similar actions in other parts of the country."

On December 16th, one ton of bomb-making materials was seized by police from the house of Arifah, a friend of Amrozi, in Lamongan, East Java. Amrozi is believed to have acted as the field coordinator for the Bali bombings, which killed almost 200 people and injured 300 others, mostly foreign tourists. The bombings in other parts of Indonesia did not materialize, as Amrozi and his accomplices were arrested in connection with the Bali outrage.

Amrozi has admitted that the stock of bomb-making materials the police seized recently was his and that it was going to be used to make bombs for places other than Bali. He also said the explosive materials were initially kept in the house of his friend Badri, but Badri later moved them to Arifah's house where they were eventually found by police.

When police quizzed Amrozi about his role in the Bali bombings, he refused to speak and only smiled. But when investigators showed him the wreck of the L-300 van in which one of the bombs had been detonated, he slowly began to tell his story. Amrozi and other suspects in the Bali bombings, including Imam Samudra and Ali Guufron, are currently in the custody of the Bali police.