Trial for girls’ beheading begins

A SUSPECTED Muslim militant went on trial yesterday accused of the beheadings of three Christian girls as they walked to school on Indonesia’s terror-scarred Sulawesi island.

Prosecutors say Hasanuddin wanted to avenge the deaths of Muslims by Christian mobs during sectarian fighting between 1999 and 2002 and left a note with the girls’ heads vowing more machete attacks.

Hasanuddin and two other suspects captured months after the October 2005 attack on an isolated jungle track are being charged under anti-terrorism laws and face the death penalty if found guilty.

Prosecutors said Hasanuddin was the ringleader of the attack and present during it, but did not wield a machete himself. Prosecutors allege he gave money to the other attackers for machetes and plastic bags to put the girls heads in. The heads were dumped close to a church.