JAKARTA (AFP)
Five men will face trial over the burning down of a mosque belonging to a minority sect that has been branded as "deviant" by Indonesian religious authorities, police said Tuesday.
Sukabumi district police chief Guntor Gaffar confirmed that five people had been declared suspects, a status that means they will stand trial.
They were allegedly involved in an arson attack on a mosque belonging to the Ahmadiyya sect at Parakan Salak, in the West Java district of Sukabumi, just after midnight on Sunday night.
The mosque was set alight by an angry mob reportedly led by members of the Jamiatul Mubalighin Communication Forum, a gathering of Muslim preachers.
Gaffar said the suspects would face charges of destruction and arson, but gave no further details. The accused were not currently in police custody but religious leaders had guaranteed their appearance in court.
"It is true they have been declared as suspects," Gaffar said.
National Police Spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira said the men could be charged with damaging religious sites, an offence that carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.
Nobody was injured in the violence which involved hundreds of people from neighboring villages. A school was also vandalized.
The attack has been condemned by human rights monitors as a serious violation of religious freedom in the world's most populous Muslim country.
An inter-departmental team which monitors religious groups earlier this month recommended the government disband the sect due to its unorthodox Islamic beliefs.
The government has yet to make a decision on the case.
Ahmadiyya claims several thousand members in Indonesia. It believes Mohammed was not the final Muslim prophet, contradicting a central tenet of mainstream Islam.
Various officials and Islamic leaders have already called on Muslims not to resort to violence in dealing with the Ahmadiyya. |
