” “” “"We are innocent. This is a political conspiracy to cover the names that we have reported as the real culprits of the violence that has been blamed on us. For years we have tried to reveal the truth, but they have prevented us speaking”. These are the last public statements made by Fabianus Tibo, Marinus Riwu and Dominggus da Silva, the three Indonesian Catholics executed last night as they had been held responsible for the death of some Muslim devotees during the inter-religious fights of Poso in 2000. It has been revealed by the agency Asianews that also revealed that the Office of the Attorney of Palu denied to the three people to receive "spiritual assistance" from father Jimmy Tumbelaka, the priest who had taken care of them in the Petobo prison. The mortuary chapel in the cathedral of St. Mary in Palu, which the three people had asked for, was refused, and their right to attend their last Mass was also denied. At the news of their death, riots burst out in Atambua, West Timor and in Sulawesi. In Atambua, in the eastern province of East Nusa Tenggara, where the majority of the population is Christian, hundreds of protesters assaulted the offices of the Attorney General, breaking into the prison and releasing about 200 prisoners. Grief has been expressed by the Holy See and the associations that had fought for the release of the three Catholics, Comunità di sant’Egidio and Opera don Orione.
