An administrative court overturned Thursday the Depok mayor's decision to revoke a building permit for a Protestant HKBP church in his municipality.
A panel of three judges at Bandung State Administrative Court (PTUN) handed down the verdict after learning that the mayor had no legal right to cancel the church's permit, which had been officially obtained under existing procedures.
Plaintiff Betty Sitorus, the head of the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP) church's construction committee, said she was happy about the verdict.
"I feel so relieved. The court has finally proved that our building permit did not violate any existing regulation and even the mayor can't revoke it as long as we use the permit accordingly," she told The Jakarta Post on Thursday. However, the congregation would wait until the legal process was complete before continuing their construction of the church.
"We will have to prepare for another legal battle should the Depok municipality appeal to a higher court," she said. The court has given the Depok municipality 14 days to decide whether to appeal or not.
The conflict between the HKBP congregation and Depok Mayor Nurmahmudi Ismail escalated when the latter issued a municipal ordinance on March 27 to cancel the building permit for a church in the Bukit Cinere Indah residential complex in Depok, which belongs to the HKBP congregation.
The committee received the permit from the administration in 1998, but left the land untouched for almost 10 years as former Depok mayor Badrul Kamal suggested the committee stop the church's construction in May 1999, following a series of protests from certain groups.
In September 2008, the committee decided to continue building the church, but stopped after members of the Muslim Solidarity Forum attacked its workers and sealed the construction site. After the attack, the committee sent three letters to Nurmahmudi, a former president of the Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), asking the mayor to facilitate a dialogue. But instead they got the unexpected permit cancellation. The HKBP, represented by lawyer Junimart Girsang, filed a lawsuit on May 6 to get the revocation cancelled, saying it had fulfilled all required stipulations, including a recommendation from the government-sponsored Interfaith Communication Forum (FKUB).
Responding to the Bandung PTUN's verdict, Depok municipality spokesman Eko Herwiyanto said the administration would prepare an appeal to the higher court.
Without their own church, the HKBP congregation, more than 350 families, have to borrow the Bahtera Allah church in Pangkalan Jati, South Jakarta to host masses.
