SIX of the seven Papuans charged with the premeditated murder of three teachers at the Freeport mine in 2002 are facing the death penalty merely for supplying the attackers with coffee and sugar, says one of their lawyers.

The trial of the Papuans opened yesterday. They are accused of murdering two Americans and one Indonesian, and of torturing several other Freeport employees in the 2002 shooting attack on a convoy of vehicles within the vast copper and gold mine in Timika, Papua.

The accused include Anthonius Wamang, a member of the separatist group Operation Free Papua, who admits he took part in the attack, but says he shot at the vehicles thinking it was an Indonesian military convoy.

But the other six are civilians, who face death sentences for allegedly supplying food and camping supplies to Wamang and 11 other men who took part in the attack, says David Sitorus, one of a team of lawyers defending the Papuans.

"How can giving coffee and sugar to someone be the same as premeditated murder? These six … are just the scapegoats while the real killers remain free," he said.

None of the suspects knew Wamang was planning an attack on Freeport, Mr Sitorus said.

One, Reverend Ishak Onawame, said he regularly gave food handouts: "Sugar, coffee and other foods to all Papuans, not just Wamang, as part of a social service for the community".

The state prosecutor Payaman defended the charges against the six logistics suppliers.

"We developed the charges based on police investigation, it was legal evidence," he said outside the court.

Wamang claims that after he began shooting he was joined by masked gunmen, who fired the fatal shots, his lawyer says.

"Who killed the Americans? We don't know because the police and prosecutors have just made up a story," Mr Sitorus said, adding that only Freeport employees, government employees and Indonesian military could enter the mine.

All seven suspects refused to appear at the hearing in the Central Jakarta Court yesterday, arguing that under Indonesian law the trial should be heard in Timika, the city where they were arrested in January.

The presiding judge, Andriani Nurdin, ruled that the seven must appear at the next court session in Jakarta on July 18.

Six hundred Indonesian police officers from Jakarta arrived in Timika on Sunday to officially take over responsibility from the military for protecting the Freeport mine. The mine employs 628 security staff.