West Java Police v Pastor – Death-Threat Victim Charged with 'Assault' on Islamist!

Just got home , checked the comments, had a light-hearted exchange with a regular commenter, then WHAM!

It is hard not to rage at the constant persecution of religious minorites here, so I don’t usually deny myself that form of relief, but tonight, reading the Jakarta Globe, I went off the deep end.

You will have read my frequent request for any progress report on the death-threat made publicly against Pastor Palti of the HKBP Protestant Church in Tambun, Bekasi, West Java.

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• Pastor Palti
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• A grubby Islamist lout made the threat loudly, it was captured on video, and so was the disgraceful response of Bekasi Police, whose senior officer present at the scene had to have heard the threat but merely strolled nonchalantly away from his duty to apprehend the swine.– https://rossrightangle.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/off-with-his-head-jakarta-cops-no-sweat-on-murder-threat/

That was months ago, and I regularly ask what is being done to bring the thug to justice. The only answer has been silence, as the pastor and his Christian congregation continue to be denied their constitutional right to worship

The scum who stage mob actions against them have abandoned all pretence of peaceful protest and pelted them with bags of urine.

Filth, pure filth – and by that I’m not referring to their missiles of choice!

NOW for today’s news.

Bekasi police have charged a local pastor for allegedly assaulting a member of an intolerant group on Christmas Eve last year.
“I got the letter summoning me as suspect yesterday,” HKBP Filadelfia pastor Palti Panjaitan, told Jakarta Globe on Wednesday. “I’m charged with article 352 and 335 of the criminal code on assault and unpleasant conduct.”

The ‘victim’ is Abdul Aziz, whom the JG amusingly describes as a religious figure!

“He was about to attack me,” Palti said. “I went off the motorcycle to maintain my safety. He approached me and I held him with my hands. Police separated us, and there was no problem afterward. If I hit his chest as [Abdul has] reported to the police, I would have been detained that night. The Bekasi police chief was there, and many police officers.”

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And exactly who is this religious figure?

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Palti said that Abdul is a member of an extremist Muslim group in the area, and that Abdul had previously intimidated him in a separate altercation. Palti filed a report to the police on Apr. 20, 2012, which said that ABDUL WAS THREATENING TO KILL HIM! (RRA emphasis)

“The dossier [for the case] has been completed at the prosecutor’s office,” Palti said. “The police probably want to make [a case against me to] balance [the upcoming case against Abdul]. As Abdul’s case will soon go to court, they’ll force this case to go to court as well. I can see that the police are afraid so they victimize me by naming me as a suspect in order to prevent backlash from the intolerant group.”

 Indonesian Church Union (PGI) Secretary Reverend Gomar Gultom was quick to confirm Palti’s words.

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• Gomar
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• “The allegation was fabricated,” Gomar said. “What really happened was the congregation members were about to conduct a service, but there was mass provoked to prevent the service. We wonder why such allegations were quickly responded by police, but [church] services disturbed by intolerant group were left unprotected.”

• 

• We have covered this case from the start, in the vain hope that our constant nagging would encourage other media to join a hue and cry to get Bekasi’s Finest to behave like honourable law enforcement officers instead of sock-puppets in an Islamist pantomime. They really are a bad joke.

However, as the JG usefully reminds us, similar provocateur tactics have been tried elsewhere, in Bogor, where an innocent Christian, Jayadi Damanik, was hit with bogus charges of assault.

https://rossrightangle.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/here-we-go-again-islamist-mobsters-get-negotiation-christian-gets-summons/

• Jayadi

• The ‘victim’ that time was no less than the local leader of the civic militia, Satpol PP, another goon squad that often does Islamist bidding. Their leader, who had previously been reported by Christians for obstructing their worship, finally ‘revoked his report.

I’d like to say that this latest pathetic ploy by Bekasi Police is a pattern of state terror against the victims by the police,  because that’s the God’s Honest Truth, but in fact Bona Sigalingging, of the persecuted Yasmin Church in Bogor, used precisely those words. before I could!

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• Bona
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• “By naming Palti a suspect, police show that they’re not siding with the court’s ruling that is legally binding, but siding with pressure from the intolerant group,” Bona said.

PGI’s Gomar is also right to be angry, but I think his suggested course of action will achieve nothing.. “In my opinion, this is very dangerous. I will ask the Government, especially the President, to see this problem.”

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• SBY
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http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/bekasi-pastor-charged-with-assaulting-member-of-intolerant-group/579436

• President SBY is FULLY aware of ALL the facts, but the high court rulings which give both Bogor’s and Bekasi’s oppressed Protestants the right to use their places of worship remain unenforced.

Why he stands back, evidently content to preside over a spreading lagoon of sectarian injustice, is not for me to explain.

But it is for all Indonesians of goodwill to regret.