Australian police said Wednesday they have begun a war crimes investigation into the deaths of five journalists in East Timor in 1975, after a coroner ruled the so-called Balibo Five were deliberately killed by Indonesian soldiers.

Dorelle Pinch, the deputy Coroner for New South Wales state, ruled in 2007 that two Australians, two Britons and a New Zealander were killed by Indonesian special forces to cover up an invasion that would begin two months later.

That conclusion was handed down to the Commonwealth attorney general.

The attorney general referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police, who opened an investigation in August.

"Allegations of war crimes committed overseas give rise to complex legal and factual issues that require careful consideration by law enforcement agencies before deciding to investigate," the AFP said in a statement Wednesday.

British journalists Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters, Australians Gregory Shackleton and Anthony Stewart, and New Zealander Gary Cunningham were in their twenties when they were in the village of Balibo near the Indonesian-East Timor border, at a time when East Timor was still a Portuguese colony.

Indonesia considers case closed

Indonesia has denied any wrongdoing and said the five men — now known collectively as the Balibo Five — were killed accidentally by crossfire.

Teuku Faizasyah, an Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a statement that the country considered the case closed and would ask the Australian government for more information about the nature of the probe.

If the police investigation turns up sufficient new evidence, it will hand it over to the country's director of public prosecutions.

The incident is still a divisive issue politically, and recently gained added attention with the release this year of an Australian film, the drama Balibo, chronicling the last days of the journalists.

Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and occupied the territory for 24 years.

Violence during the territory's 1999 vote for independence led to hundreds of deaths and forced 250,000 to flee to the Indonesian western half of the island.

East Timor became independent in 2002.