TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo presented the Bintang Jasa Utama honorary award to Eurico Guterres, Chairman of the Communication Forum for East Timor Fighters and the Chairman of Uni Timor Aswain (UNTAS), in an award ceremony at the State Palace on Thursday, August 12, 2021.

The award was handed by the President's Military Secretary and Secretary of the Medal of Honor and Merits Council, Marshal M. Toni Harjono who reiterated Guterres' services.

Guterres is a former East Timor pro-integration militia who was born in Viqueque, Timor, on July 4, 1969, and chose to become an Indonesian citizen after East Timor gained independence under the Presidency of the late Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie. He also served as a Regional People's Consultative Assembly (DPRD) member.

On November 27, 2002, the Central Jakarta Ad Hoc Human Rights District Court handed Eurico Guterres 10-year imprisonment after he was accused of being responsible for the post-referendum massacre and the destruction at East Timor capital city of Dili.

However, in 2008, the Supreme Court granted his request for review and liberated Guterres. In a previous interview with Koran Tempo on March 15, 2006, Guterres maintains his innocence in the human rights violation case.

"I am not guilty. Is the issue in East Timor my own problem?" he said to Koran Tempo at the time.

Throughout the years, Eurico Guterres had been active in political parties and often moved from one party to another since 1999, starting from Golkar Party, Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), National Mandate Party (PAN), Perindo, and the Gerindra Party in 2021.

EGI ADYATAMA