An American freelance journalist who traveled with rebels in Indonesia’s Aceh for a month before surrendering to government troops went on trial Wednesday charged with immigration offences. Wearing a long white-sleeved shirt and blue tie, William Nessen smiled as he entered the court in the provincial capital Banda Aceh. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in jail. “The defendant misused his Indonesian visa,” prosecutor Efdal Effendi told the court, adding Nessen’s activities were incompatible with the visa. He did not elaborate. Nessen, in his 40s, was arrested in late June after he gave himself up to the military, which is conducting an offensive to crush rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). Full Story