The men stand accused of carrying out a shooting spree near a gold and copper mine operated by US-owned Freeport McMoRanin Papua, in which two US teachers and their Indonesian colleague were killed. Judge Andriani Nurdin Tuesday gave the defendants an opportunity to make a final plea but they declined.
The men, who could face the death penalty, have been boycotting their trial to protest it being held here rather than in Papua. Authorities moved the venue to Jakarta citing security reasons. Nurdin said the verdict would be delivered next Tuesday.
Meanwhile about 50 protestors outside the court demanded that the men, arrested in January in an operation involving the FBI, be freed and the mine shut down. Rebels from the Free Papua Movement (OPM) have been fighting a sporadic and low-level guerrilla war since 1963, when Indonesia took over the huge, mountainous and undeveloped territory of Papua from Dutch colonisers.
Antonius Wamang, who was indicted by a US grand jury in 2004 for the shooting, is alleged to have been an OPM commander at the time. He has admitted firing 30 shots during the attack on the vehicles carrying the Americans, but also implicated the military in the incident.
Police have said the other six suspects were also members of the movement, but their lawyers have maintained that they were "just ordinary people".
Papua-based rights groups have alleged that the military ordered the attack to ensure that Freeport continued making large cash payments to it for security in and around the mine. The military has denied any involvement in the killings.