Rally Rages Outside Bogor Court Trial on Ahmadiyah Village Attack

NEWS

Rally Rages Outside Bogor Court Trial on Ahmadiyah Village Attack

Elisabeth Oktofani | January 27, 2011

Bogor. Over 1,000 Muslim hard-liners surrounded a district court in Bogor on Wednesday, demanding the immediate release of three youths standing trial for an attack on an Ahmadiyah community last year.

Dede Novi, 18, Aldi Afriansyah, 23, and Akbar Ramanda, 17, are accused of destroying property and inciting violence during an October riot in Cisalada village, according to indictment documents.

The three were said to be part of a mob that burned down houses, schools and a mosque at the Bogor village, home to 600 members of the Ahmadiyah, a minority Islamic sect deemed deviant by mainstream Muslims for their different beliefs on the Prophet Muhammad.

The crowds that came out in support of the defendants on Wednesday, however, slammed these accusations.

Though police had barred them from entering the courtroom, the protesters reportedly “became incensed” when the defendants’ lawyer told them about a witness who said Dede had set the At-Taufiq Mosque and an Ahmadiyah Koran on fire.

Ari Saputra, a resident in Cisalada, testified on Wednesday that Dede could have thrown a Molotov cocktail at the mosque.

“I cannot be sure that he really was the one who threw the Molotov cocktail, but I saw that he was part of the group,” Ari told the court, led by Judge Astriwati.

Dede, however, denied throwing the fire bomb, but admitted at the hearing that he was part of the group which set the village mosque on fire.

A second witness, Mubarik Ahmad, a Cisalada resident and an Ahmadi, said he saw the three defendants break into and torch the mosque.

“I saw them. They were among hundreds who came to our village that night and attacked. They were brutal,” Mubarik said. “They threw stones at the mosque, broke its windows and set it on fire. Others came on motorbikes and made noises with their horns.

“They burned and destroyed so much property in our village,” he added. “That evening, our only concern was how to stay alive.”

After being informed of Mubarik’s statements, the angry crowds outside the courtroom began to yell out that the witness was a liar.

Protesters also tried to attack Mubarik as he left the courtroom under tight police guard.

Amid Wednesday’s unrest, hundreds of security personnel were deployed to Cisalada and the Cibinong District Court, where the trial was held.

The three defendants are accused of violating the Criminal Code, particularly Article 406 on the destruction of property and Article 170 on assault.

Article 406 carries a maximum sentence of two years and eight months in jail, while Article 170 carries a punishment of up to five years and six months.

Agus Sulaiman, one of the protesters, said the people of Bogor would “never accept the presence of the Ahmadiyah.”

“What is worse is that they built an Ahmadiyah information center in our village,” said Agus, a resident of Ciampea subdistrict.

“If they don’t stop this, we will stop them. We will burn their properties,” he said. “They call themselves followers of Islam. This is what we cannot accept.”

Agus said many conservative Muslims in the area detested the sect for believing that Ahmadiyah founder Mirza Gulam Ahmad was the last prophet.

This runs counter to mainstream Islamic beliefs which reserve that distinction for the Prophet Muhammad.

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/rally-rages...attack/419272

Crowd bullies Ahmadi at trial, disrupts courtroom

HEADLINES Thu, 01/27/2011 11:02 AM

Crowd bullies Ahmadi at trial, disrupts courtroom

Hans David Tampubolon, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

An elderly man was harassed by a rowdy mob on Wednesday as he testified in court about the destruction the property of Ahmadiyah followers in Ciampea, Bogor.

Mubarik Ahmadari came to the Cibinong District Court in Bogor on Wednesday to testify about the attack against his fellow Ahmadiyah members in October.

The 70-year-old man was greeted by more than 1,000 anti-Ahmadiyah protesters. Members of the crowd claimed to be residents of Ciampea who came to support the alleged arsonists on trial: Dede Novi, Aldi and Akbar.

The protesters jammed the courtroom. Many had to stand outside. Throughout the trial, unruly protesters in the courtroom were heard yelling, demanding that the judges drop all charges against the suspects and that the government disband Ahmadiyah.

Despite the clamor, Mubarik remained calm and told the court a version of events that was vociferously rejected by onlookers. He seemed unfazed by the constant din of mockery and hate-filled comments directed at him.

However, even after giving his testimony, Mubarik found that his day was not over yet.

As Mubarik finished his testimony he went to exit the courtroom. Protesters blocked his path. Some stood at the doors. Others tried to grab him.

Police officers were there to protect the witness from what looked to be a potential savage beating at the angry rabble’s hands. After a brief scuffle, officers safely escorted Mubarik out of the courtroom.

Mubarik was one of four witnesses heard in Wednesday’s court session.

Around 20 people attacked Cisalada village in Ciampea in October, vandalizing and setting fire to the community’s mosque and the homes and vehicles of Ahmadiyah followers.

Hendardi, a human rights activist from the Setara Institute, said what happened to Mubarik was evidence that intolerance had become a dangerous disease in Indonesia.

“The fact that a man could be terrorized at a court of law is a horrific occurrence in the life of our nation,” Hendardi told The Jakarta Post over the telephone on Wednesday.

“This shows how the state is completely helpless in ensuring the basic human rights of its citizens,” he added.

Hendardi said that if the state continued to fail to impose strict punishment on violent fundamentalists, then violent acts, such as the those perpetrated on Mubarik and other Ahmadiyah followers, would continue.

Followers of Ahmadiyah have come under attack in recent years from Islamic hardliners who believe that the sect follows a heretical version Islam.

While the earliest recorded attacks against Ahmadis date to the early 1950s, it was not until 2005 that violence intensified dramatically.

In 2010 alone there were 10 recorded attacks against Ahmadis throughout the archipelago.

The government drew criticism from human rights activists for symbolically condoning violence against Ahmadis after Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said that it would be better if the Ahmadiyah sect was “disbanded”. Suryadharma is also the chairman of the United Development Party (PPP), an Islamic-based political party.

URL: www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/01/...courtroom.html

Indonesian Prosecutors ‘Dead’ Wrong in Sect Stabbing Claim in Bogor

NEWS

Indonesian Prosecutors ‘Dead’ Wrong in Sect Stabbing Claim in Bogor

Ulma Haryanto | January 20, 2010

Ahmad Nuryamin, 35, was arrested and accused of a stabbing he says he was forced to confess to during torture. (JG Photo/ Nivell Rayda)

Indonesia. Prosecutors in Bogor on Wednesday admitted making a big mistake in their indictment of an Ahmadiyah sect member who was accused of stabbing a teenager during a mob attack on an Ahmadi settlement in October.

The indictment against Ahmad Nuryamin, 35, said a forensic test done on the victim’s “dead body” had shown stab wounds. But the defense counsel had argued that the victim, 15-year-old Rendi Apriansyah from neighboring Pasar Salasa village, was alive and only wounded — not dead.

In their response to last week’s defense statement at the court in Cibinong, Bogor, the team of prosecutors on Wednesday admitted to the mistake. “We admit that we were careless,” Prosecutor Nuraeni Aco told the court.

However, Nuraeni said the defendant was carrying a knife at the time of the incident and that the prosecutors would leave it to the court to decide whether he stabbed the victim or not.

“We believe it was suspicious for Nuryamin to have a knife with him at nighttime, because farmers don’t work at night,” she said.

Nuryamin has argued that, as a farmer, he carried the knife every day and that the victim had bumped into him in the confusion and darkness during the Oct. 1 attack by a mob of mainstream Muslims on Cisalada, a village that is home to some 600 members of the Ahmadiyah community. He said his knife had still been in its sheath at the time of the alleged attack.

“Rendi himself could not rightly identify the suspect,” Muhammad Isnur, a member of the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) and Nuryamin’s legal counsel, told reporters after the hearing. “First he said it was a long-bearded old man with a white shirt. The police arrested two elderly men, neither of whom carried a sharp weapon,” he said.

Police attention fell upon Nuryamin after a boy’s report that he had overheard him saying that he might have stabbed someone.

Nuryamin was arrested for questioning three days later.

He signed a confession that he had stabbed Rendi during the night of the attack when hundreds of assailants burned and looted homes, schools and a mosque in Cisalada.

But the defendant, who faces up to 10 years in jail for assault on a minor, claims he only signed the confession after being tortured by two police officers.

Nuryamin’s mother, Rohmatika, said that after he had been interrogated by the police, “I saw his face was full of bruises, his lips were bleeding and he had difficulty hearing.”

Judge Eddy Wibisono adjourned the trial to Jan. 27 to hear the prosecutors’ reply.

A different panel of judges at the same court on Wednesday heard the case of three teenagers who allegedly destroyed property during the same attack on Cisalada. Judge Atriwati adjourned their trial until Jan 26.

Authorities have declared the Ahmadiyah religion to be a deviant sect, and its followers have been the repeated target of attacks, especially in West Java and West Nusa Tenggara, by mainstream Muslim neighbors.

Copyright 2010 The Jakarta Globe
URL: www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/indonesian...in-bogor/417964