Johan Teterisa

2007 Ambon protest Teterissa is reported to have first joined the RMS in 2002 in his home village of Aboru, which is located in Central Maluku. The Indonesian military and government blamed the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) for not anticipating a possible protest at the ceremony. Teterissa's life sentence is the maximum punishment for treason allowed under Indonesia's Criminal Code. In their sentencing the judges told Teterissa that he had "embarrassed the people of Indonesia in the eyes of the world." which consists of a sprawling archipelago of nearly 18,000 islands. Four other Moluccan separatists were given similar prison sentences in March 2008 for displaying or possessing the RMS flag, which is banned in Indonesia.

Reactions Human rights activists condemned Teterissa's life sentence for a nonviolent protest as excessive. Antonius Sujata, a former Indonesian deputy attorney general, called Teterissa's punishment, "emotional, political and nonsense." Sujata also told the media that, "The man only waved a flag and did not try to harm the President."

After 10 years of imprisonment, Johan Teterissa was released in December 2018. He died on 4 December 2019 less than a year after his parole and return to the Moluccas.