P

olice have scheduled a questioning session for next Wednesday for HKBP Filadelfia church pastor Palti Panjaitan, after they officially named him a suspect on Tuesday in connection with an alleged attack on several members of a hard-line group on Christmas Eve.

Police did not respond to The Jakarta Post’s request to comment on the issue on Wednesday.

A church congregation member, Hamonangan Manurung, told the Post that the police report was filed by an Islamic Community Forum (FUI) member, Abdul Aziz, who claimed to have been assaulted by Palti on the night.

According to Hamonangan, who said he also witnessed the incident, locals and several people from the forum attacked the church congregation on Christmas Eve and told them to stop the service.

“Animal waste, dirt and much more was thrown at us. We were also pushed away from the church,” he said. “But we never fought back.”

He said Abdul had met with Palti during the incident and tried to assault the pastor directly. He also cited the report as a form of defamation and slander. “Many police personnel were guarding the area. If it is true that the pastor assaulted Abdul, then [police officers] would have arrested him at the scene, right?” he said.

Hamonangan alleged that the report could have been made in retaliation to the pastor’s report on Abdul filed in April 2012, which stated that the forum members had threatened to kill Palti. He said the church congregation had filed a report and submitted evidence, including a video, showing that Abdul had gestured slitting Palti’s throat.

“The pastor is truly in shock right now, but we will maintain coordination with our lawyers to free him,” Hamonangan said.

A similar case happened to a GKI Yasmin church congregation member in Bogor, West Java. Jayadi Damanik was named a suspect for allegedly assaulting the Bogor Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) chief Bambang Budiyanto in October 2011, although the report was later withdrawn. Previously, Bambang was reported by the beleaguered church congregations for prohibiting them from offering services. (fzm)