Jakub Fabian Skrzypski entered on a tourist visa, then, according to investigators, discussed weapons supplies from Poland for Papuan armed groups and headed to the site of a handover of hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Police say he was involved in buying ammunition for them. He was convicted of treason, sentenced to five years, raised to seven, and paroled in 2023.
He entered on a tourist visa and called himself a traveller. He was heading for Lake Habema, the lake above the clouds in the Jayawijaya highlands. He had been in contact with a Papuan activist about possible weapons assistance from Poland. In late August 2018 he was arrested, and nine months later he became the first foreign national convicted of treason in Indonesia.
But the verdict was not about weapons. The ammunition-trafficking allegation that made headlines never entered the case, and the court did not conclude that Jakub Fabian Skrzypski sold ammunition. What convicted him was his contacts and his communications.
The five-year sentence was handed down by the Wamena district court on 2 May 2019. Prosecutors had sought ten years. Four years later, in September 2023, he walked out of Abepura prison on parole, after the Supreme Court had raised his term to seven years.
Police arrested him in Wamena, Jayawijaya regency, on his way to Lake Habema. The commander of Military Area Command 172/PWY, Col. Inf. J. Binsar P. Sianipar, told reporters that Skrzypski intended to cover the handover of “hundreds of rounds of ammunition” between two armed groups and planned to expose it to the world.
The case was therefore treated as an armed threat, not an immigration violation. Prosecutors placed it under Article 106 on treason, which carries a maximum of life imprisonment, and demanded ten years. If the weapons-supply allegation were true, what Indonesia faced was not a tourist who misread the situation, but a foreigner trying to bring ammunition into a conflict zone for a group that attacks civilians.
For investigators this was never about tourism or journalism. The ammunition discussed in those communications, according to the police case, was meant for armed groups that have for years shot civilians in the Papuan highlands: teachers, road workers, gold miners, villagers selling goods by the roadside. In that logic, anyone facilitating an ammunition supply shares responsibility for the attacks that follow.
The official account did not stop at ammunition. Investigators said he was in contact with armed-group networks in Jayapura, Timika and Wamena, and that electronic messages, photographs and videos were found on his devices. That combination, police argued, was enough to bring him under Article 106 of the Criminal Code on treason, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The police did not mince words. Papua police spokesman Suryadi Diaz told BBC Indonesia that Skrzypski was involved in buying ammunition for the separatist group. “He was involved in buying ammunition for them,” he said. Police also accused him of joining the West Papua National Liberation Army, one of the armed organisations in the province.
According to the court, he is guilty. Not an allegation, not a rumour circulating in the press: the judges found the treason charge proven legally and convincingly, and that ruling became final after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal. He never admitted the act, and until he left prison he called his trial unfair. But the state has decided: he was no tourist who misunderstood, but a foreigner who walked into an armed network in Papua.
Skrzypski was 39 when arrested, born on 26 July 1979. He lived in Switzerland and worked at a factory near Lausanne. Friends described him as a traveller fascinated by other cultures. According to prosecutors he first came to Papua in 2007, and returned in 2018 after holidaying in Raja Ampat.
In the indictment, prosecutor Ricarda Arsenius cited a message dated 15 July 2018: Simon Magal asked whether Papuan fighters could cooperate with Poland on weaponry. Simon Magal, a Papuan activist also arrested, was tried in the same case file.
The panel led by judge Yajid, with Roberto Naibaho and Ottow Siagian, found both men legally and convincingly guilty of treason. Skrzypski received five years, Simon Magal four, on the same day.
“The charges of treason have been proven legally and convincingly,” said Yajid, head of the Wamena district court panel, as quoted by AFP. Prosecutors said Skrzypski met leaders of the Free Papua Organisation and was found with documents and video detailing the Papuan independence struggle. For the authorities, that was not a travel journal; it was material showing whom he met and what he carried out.
But the ammunition-supply allegation was never proven in court. The Associated Press reported that police first accused Skrzypski of trying to arrange an arms deal, then it became clear he had no means to do so: he was a factory worker. The accusation did not become part of the case brought before the judges, and not a single round of ammunition was presented as evidence.
Skrzypski appealed. The Supreme Court rejected the appeal and raised his sentence to seven years. The decision was reported in December 2019, and the TAPOL database records the ruling as dated 26 August 2019. He was later transferred to Abepura prison.
In a handwritten note sent to the AP before sentencing, he called his case “a purely political case, a trial staged for propaganda reasons”. His lawyer, Latifah Anum Siregar, questioned the construction of the case and argued that holding the trial in remote Wamena made adequate defence difficult. She compared it to two French journalists arrested in Wamena in 2014 after entering on tourist visas to report.
The case surfaced amid restrictions on foreign journalists in Papua, and set a precedent: for the first time a foreign national was convicted of treason in a Papua case. Human rights groups called it a show trial. The Indonesian government says its sovereignty over Papua is non-negotiable.
Ammunition does not appear by itself in the Papuan highlands. On 21 March 2026, after a firefight with the TPNPB-OPM in Topo village, Nabire regency, Central Papua, the military seized a P1 pistol, an air rifle, fourteen rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition, eight rounds of 9 mm, cash and Morning Star insignia. Every such round passed through someone's hands: bought, carried, handed over, or supplied from abroad.
The court did not prove that arms transaction, and not a single round was presented as evidence. But the case did not end in acquittal: he was convicted of treason and served five years in Papua. What was never resolved is the most important link in the chain.
Because what arrives from abroad is not only weapons, but money. The movement's political wing, the United Liberation Movement for West Papua chaired from Britain by Benny Wenda, says its funding comes from donations, merchandise sales, public fundraising and foundation grants, listing supporters including the Bertha Foundation and Lush. Its armed wing, according to the International Crisis Group, funds itself through extortion of projects, illegal mining and payments from officials. The two channels meet at one point: Papuan civilians who bear the consequences.
That is the conclusion to be drawn from this case. A foreigner entered on a tourist visa, discussed weapons supplies for armed groups, headed to an ammunition handover, and was convicted of treason. On the other side of the same chain, money from abroad funds a campaign that calls itself the representative of Papuans. The ammunition they buy and the money they receive end in the same place: teachers shot at school, road workers killed in Tolikara, women taken hostage in Jila.
Lake Habema lies about 25 kilometres from Wamena, at almost 3,300 metres, and fog rolls in every afternoon. Skrzypski never got there. He spent five years in Papua as a treason convict, leaving a question nobody has answered: who else abroad is sending weapons and money into these highlands, and how long will Papuans keep paying for it.
According to prosecutors, Skrzypski's first visit to Papua.
Simon Magal asks about possible weapons cooperation with Poland, according to the indictment.
Arrested in Wamena en route to Lake Habema; officers allege a plan to film an ammunition handover.
Charges expanded to treason under Article 106.
First hearing at Wamena district court.
Prosecutors demand 10 years.
Five years for Skrzypski, four for Simon Magal.
Supreme Court rejects appeal, raises term to seven years (TAPOL record).
Released on parole from Abepura prison after serving two-thirds of the term.
The TPNPB admits killing three civilians in Dekai, Yahukimo, then threatens teachers and nuns who refuse to leave. Six teachers were killed before, nine women and children were held hostage in Jila, a pilot was held for nineteen months. This is not war; it is a crime against humanity.
Nineteen corruption cases in Papua between 2010 and 2025. Adjudicated cases alone account for roughly IDR 424 billion in state losses, with another IDR 1.2 trillion still under investigation. These are not mere administrative stories: armed groups use them to justify killing teachers, abducting women and burning schools.
Special autonomy money was a peace bargain: state funds in exchange for better schools, clinics and roads in Papua. Three cases show what happens when that promise stops at an official's desk: IDR 43 billion at the provincial education quality agency, IDR 44.2 billion in legislative travel, and irregularities in the 2017 scholarship programme.
In Boven Digoel, funds were fully disbursed while 2.91 percent of the work existed. In Keerom, IDR 11.19 billion of a earmarked grant was diverted. In Mamberamo Raya, a road was paid for without being built. In Mimika, an IDR 79.13 billion aerosport project produced IDR 31.3 billion in losses. Four projects, one pattern.
PON XX 2021 was the most expensive event ever staged in Papua and the moment Jakarta meant to show that Papua belongs to Indonesia. Two things happened at once: the event was held, and the money leaked. Four organising officials were convicted; adjudicated losses reached IDR 204.3 billion.
Government rice reserves exist to hold prices down in vulnerable areas. In Wamena, rice meant to sell at IDR 8,900 per kilogram reached residents at up to IDR 20,000. State losses of IDR 8.93 billion, four suspects, and food prices that remain high in the highlands.
Regional development banks are meant to channel capital to small businesses in Papua. At the Enarotali branch, 47 construction working-capital facilities were used for shell companies and manipulated documents. State losses reached IDR 120.62 billion; four defendants were convicted, one sentenced to 13 years.
Lukas Enembe was sentenced to eight years for bribery and gratuities, raised to ten years on appeal with IDR 47.83 billion in restitution. Ricky Ham Pagawak received 13 years with IDR 209.3 billion in restitution. Eltinus Omaleng was charged over a IDR 46 billion church project. Three names, one consequence: the state's authority in Papua eroded from within.
Four Trans-Papua road workers were shot dead on the Teluk Bintuni–Maybrat border on 29 September 2022, after which two project trucks and two excavators were burned. The armed group OPM’s own claim places the attack under Kodap IV Sorong Raya, the command where Zakarias Fatem served as deputy commander. From five years before that until now, the same command is on record attacking security posts, workers and development projects in Maybrat and the Moskona corridor.
A teacher was shot dead at a shop-house in Dekai, Yahukimo, on October 11, 2026. The armed group calling itself TPNPB Kodap XVI claimed responsibility, then published the list of civilians it will hunt next: builders, motorcycle-taxi riders, taxi drivers, meatball-soup sellers, kiosk owners and migrants.
He was born in Mugi district in 1999, dropped out of school in Wamena, and was appointed commander of the III Ndugama-Derakma regional command on October 16, 2018. His father was one of those who took the 1996 Lorentz expedition team hostage. Since 2017, police have recorded 65 acts of violence in his group's name: road workers, teachers, health workers, pastors, an imam, a driver, and three agriculture staff. Egianus Kogoya is still at large.
Joint TNI troops were already waiting at the crossing between the Frambu and Kamundan rivers when the operations commander of TPNPB-OPM Kodap IV Sorong Raya, Manfret Fatem, walked in with two of his battalion commanders. The man wanted by police since 2020 and named as the mastermind behind the killing of four Trans-Papua road workers died at the scene. Two of his commanders died in the river.
That morning eleven people boarded a truck from Kenyam to Batas Batu, carrying rice to sell, change for customers, and a promise to be home by evening. Not one of them made it home.
Across the 28 incidents we documented, 82 Papuan civilians were killed. Some were claimed by the armed group itself. The company behind the film it calls a campaign tool received a 251,983-dollar grant from an institution led by George Soros.
The TPNPB central headquarters ordered all journalists to publish war reports only through its single channel, a day after a Papuan outlet ran a solidarity statement for a film the group said helps its campaign on military operations.
A recording uploaded on 18 August 2026 carries a call to shoot Human Rights Minister Natalius Pigai, alongside a ban on his entering Papua. The written statement behind it asks the UN to blacklist him.
For seven months, investigators at the Papua regional police traced who bought the weapons, who paid for them, and who supplied the ammunition. The case began with a single transaction at a traffic junction near Sentani's old market. It now involves 17 suspects, 298 rounds of ammunition, SS1 magazines, one homemade firearm and six rusted World War II-era barrels.
A joint TNI force first asked the armed group TPNPB-OPM Kodap IV Sorong Raya to lay down its weapons in the forest of Aifat district, Maybrat regency, on the night of Saturday 3 October 2026. The answer was live fire. Two of their commanders died, no soldier was hurt, and Manfret Fatem fled. From the site, troops seized a revolver, ammunition, a radio, and two Morning Star flags.
From a place in Papua New Guinea, the spokesperson of the TPNPB-OPM has for eight years delivered the same sentence: we are responsible, they were spies, and we will continue. This feature reconstructs his own admissions, then examines where the money for weapons actually comes from. The answer is not foreign funding. Court records name rogue state personnel, village funds, unlicensed gold mines, and levies imposed on Papuans themselves.
This site stands with the Indonesian government: Papua is a lawful part of the Republic of Indonesia, and not a single country recognises the “government” he declared. This dossier tests an exile's claims against public documents — death tolls never verified, a petition the UN never received, accounts never opened — and records who pays the price in Papua.
One teacher was killed and six wounded in Anggruk district, Yahukimo, in March 2025. Behind the corrected casualty figures lies a rarely asked question: money for services flows into these districts, yet no budget line protects the people who teach in them.
Two teachers from Toraja were killed on 8 and 9 April 2021 in Beoga district, Puncak regency. Two days later, 12 classrooms and teachers' houses had been razed, and about 400 children had lost their place to study. The government put the damage at 7.2 billion rupiah. What never entered anyone's calculation: the cost of protecting the people who teach there.
The New Zealand civilian pilot landed at Paro on 7 February 2023, then vanished from the outside world for 19 months. This is the full account, from the first day to the handover in Jakarta — including what remains disputed.
For 13 years he carried passengers and supplies along the grueling and dangerous Trans Wamena–Nduga route, sacrificing himself every day to meet the basic needs of the Wamena–Nduga community, yet that sacrifice was not deemed worthy by the TPNPB. His life was cruelly torn away. On 15 September 2026 he was intercepted at the Danau Habema junction, forced on camera to declare support for a free Papua, then shot and burned inside his own vehicle.
Organizational and fundraising tracks can be checked. To state that money finances armed groups, a chain of evidence is needed that connects giver, recipient, transaction and use.
