ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-086-2012

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INDONESIA: Ahmadiyah members in Batam are threatened, ill-treated and illegally arrested with the acquiescence of the police

ISSUES: Freedom of expression, freedom of religion, minorities, police negligence, arbitrary arrest & detention
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding intimidation from the Islamic Defenders Front (Front Pembela Islam, FPI) towards Ahmadiyah in Batam. Short after the religious minority group held its Friday prayer on 27 April 2012, the FPI came to Nagoya building (Ruko Nagoya) where the group members regularly hold its religious activities. The FPI forcibly took the leader and two members of the group to the police where, under threats and intimidations and with the acquiescence of the police, the leader of Ahmadiyah Batam was forced to sign an agreement saying that the Ahmadiyah group will not hold any religious activities in Ruko Nagoya.

CASE NARRATIVE:
Some members of Ahmadiyah in Batam conduct their religious and organisational activities in a three-floor building in Komplek Nagoya Square (Ruko Nagoya) in Batam. On 27 April 2012 at around 1.30pm, the leader of the group, Mubaligh Nasrun, heard that there were noises coming from the first floor. A group of people as appearing to be members of the FPI, a fundamentalist Islamic group got into the building while repeatedly yelling ‘Ahmadiyah is deviant’. The FPI managed to reach the second floor where it met Mubaligh Nasrun, an Ahmadiyah member and asked him ‘who is the leader of the group?’ to which Mubaligh Nasrun replied, ‘I am’. He was later dragged by the FPI to another part of the second floor and was forced to sit on the floor to prevent him running away. Mubaligh Nasrun told the FPI that they should talk about things calmly but instead the group responded by hitting him on his head with a broomstick until the stick was broken. Mubaligh Nasrun was also subject to beatings with bare hands as well as threats. A member of the FPI, for instance, asked him whether Mubaligh Nasrun wanted him to cut the Mubaligh’s throat.
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