Majority of known Papuan political prisoners now freed

Human Rights Watch says in the past year, Indonesia's government has freed the majority of political prisoners in its Papuan provinces.

According to the NGO, there are now no more than five Papuan political prisoners behind bars compared to a tally of 37 at the end of August 2016.

It says the exact number of prisoners is uncertain as the Ministry of Law and Human Rights declined to respond to a request for an official total.

However Human Rights Watch Indonesia researcher Andreas Harsono told Koroi Hawkins his sources travelled to all of the major prisons in Papua and West Papua to collate their data and their figures are reliable.