A marine has admitted in court that he shot a female Moluccan activist at the end of the 1977 De Punt train hijacking.

The marine, known as 2C, told the court in the Hague on Wednesday that he shot her from about two metres away.

She was, he said, in a place where they had just seen fire, and claims he saw an Uzi outside the train where she died. But no weapons were found in the area where she lay.

The relatives of Hansina Uktolseja are prosecuting the state because they think she was executed while defenceless, reports ANP.

Moluccans were the original inhabitants of the Indonesian Maluku Islands, and at the time activists had hijacked the Assen to Groningen train. They were campaigning to persuade the Dutch government to fulfil its promises of giving them an independent state and breaking ties with the Indonesian government.

Two passengers and six of the nine hijackers were killed when the train was stormed after a 20-day stand-off, in which up to 150,000 bullets were fired.