Indonesias Ahmadiyah Sect Fears Religious Violence Brian Padden Jakarta September 13, 2011 Photo: AFPMembers of the

Ahmadiyah community attend Friday prayers at the An-Nur Mosque in Manis Lor village, in Kuningan, West Java. Indonesian Foreign Ministe r Marty Natalegawa defended the country s judicial system after a court sentence d Muslim radicals to a few months in jail for killing members of the minority se ct (File photo, August 5, 2011). Last month, an Indonesian court sparked outrage over the light sentences handed out to 12 people accused of a deadly riot. The accused were part of a mob that t argeted members of the Ahmadiyah Muslim minority sect, killing three of them. Analysts say the light sentences were an example of what they say is Indonesias u neven justice system that can hand down unpredictable sentences. An example is the case of Irwan Kristanto, who has been locked behind the doors of Pondok Rajeg prison for five months now. He is allowed to have visitors, but can not give a recorded interview. The frail 29 year-old looks like he is barely 20. He explains that life here has been tough. As a thief, the shy young man is forbidden to work in the orchard garden that st ands in the middle of the concrete block. That is a job only accessible for thos e on a narcotics-related offense. But Irwans case is different from the murderers serving 20 year sentences. His crime was stealing two computer memory cards fro m an Internet caf. Net value: $40. Antonius Badar follows the Irwan case for the Indonesian legal aid group LBH Mas yarakat. On Monday, he is visited Irwans parents, Hendri and Siti, to make sure t hey managed to get a copy of their sons judgment. Sometimes, the district court doesnt give this letter to the prison, Badar says. And the prison doesnt know how long the prisoner should be in the prison. If Irwan d idnt have this letter, he could stay longer in prison. Irwans father, Hendri, describes a case that, he says, should not have ended with a young man with no prior police record sent to a hardcore jail. Last February, he says, Irwan was spending time in an internet caf, wondering how to better provide for his newly pregnant wife. In the spur of the moment he ste als the two memory cards and leaves. But he forgot his cell phone and when he la ter returns to retrieve it, he is caught and sent to the police. A court later s entences him to 6 months in jail. Rizal, owner of the Internet caf, says that he now regrets having called the poli ce. After a few hours Irwan apologized and his parents reimbursed the cost of th e memory cards. Rizal says there was no real damage done and that should have be en taken into account by the court. Leopold Sudaryono, a researcher for the Asia Foundation, says the police have a quota system with financial incentives to prosecute such petty crimes. They have very limited amount of budget to process cases every month while at the same time each police station has quotas, a minimum amount of cases they have t o bring to justice, Sudaryono says. Meaning what they are doing, they have to pres s charges for very petty crimes which will not require many operational costs to investigate. And usually the prosecutors just carry on with the cases. But there are other factors that contribute to uneven sentencing, which are high lighted in the Ahmadiyah case.

The maximum sentence given to the 12 people accused of taking part of the deadly attack on the minority sect was 6 months in jail. That is the same sentence Irw an received for his petty theft offense. Leopold Sudaryono blames the police for the stark difference in the two sentence s. He says police undermined the Ahmadiyah case after officers were widely accus ed of failing to stop the mob attack. So it is in the interest of the police, in the investigation of the case, not to substantiate that the violence is orchestrated, he says.If they investigate the ca se and provide the evidence otherwise, they will cut their own neck! Thats why th ey refer the case to the prosecutor as a weak case. Last week, Indonesias foreign minister refused to comment on the verdict or wheth er such light sentences would encourage more violence. Foreign Minister Marty Na talegawa told reporters the problem of religious intolerance is not Indonesias al one. Im afraid when we speak of, for example, the whole issue of now outside the domain of the court, about the whole issue of religious intolerance or intolerance in general and all kinds of phobia, Im afraid Indonesia doesnt have a monopoly on tha t, unfortunately, he said. Indonesian public opinion polls indicate that law enforcement agencies are the l east trusted institutions. Irwan, the convicted thief, says as harsh as his sentence was, he has fared rela tively well. He should be released on August 27, just in time he hopes, to be ho me for the birth of his first child, a baby girl, due on the same day.