Pastor Rinaldy Damanik is a pastor from Tentena in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. He was arrested on September 11, 2002, for allegedly carrying weapons in his car.
Rev Rinaldy Damanik is married with one daughter and is head of the Crisis Centre of Central Sulawesi. In this position he was responsible for informing the international community of the attacks and human rights violations against the Christians in the region. The Crisis Centre is the Protestant Church Body that has provided assistance to those who have fled the 'Poso conflict' in Central Sulawesi which broke out in December 1998. Rev Damanik promoted efforts for reconciliation and was a key figure in drafting the Malino peace accord in December 2001 which brought significant peace to the region. In July and August 2002 further attacks broke out, led by members of an Islamic militia group - Laskar Jihad. In these attacks a number of Christian villages had been razed to the ground and a number of people had been killed. Indonesian military, elements of the local police force and even local government officials are accused of providing support to these attacks and arriving on the scene well after the carnage had been inflicted. Part of Damanik's responsibilities included responding to calls for assistance with evacuations and enabling fleeing villagers to safely escape to more secure areas such as Tentena. It was on one of these evacuation missions that the car Rev Damanik was in was stopped by police and the occupants ordered to move away from the vehicle. Later Damanik discovered he was being arrested for carrying weapons in his car; a charge he categorically denies.
Rev Damanik has had many enemies. Even within the church his reputation as man of simple lifestyle and commitment to working alongside the poor and marginalised put him at odds with the predominant class-conscious church culture. But his outspoken nature was of particular worry to Laskar Jihad and their sympathizers, who had made it their aim to wipe Christianity out of Central Sulawesi. Damanik's home town of Tentena was a well advertised operational target for the Laskar Jihad. Rev Damanik also angered much of the military or regional government because of his accusations of corruption and allegations of their collusion with the Laskar Jihad to further their own ends.
There had been a price on Damanik's head for a number of months and so it was no real surprise to him that he was finally arrested and taken out of Central Sulawesi for imprisonment in Jakarta. Later transferred to prison in Palu, Damanik's food was poisoned and he nearly died. On June 16 the Palu court found him guilty of carrying weapons in his car in August 2002 and sentenced him to three years jail. There was no other evidence tendered to the court that implicated Rev Damanik in any other incidents around Poso during the conflict, and, as to 'carrying weapons', the witnesses conflicted each other and fabricated their stories. For example, he injured his hand a few days before the alleged incident and had it bandaged in a sling and yet they said that they saw him driving the alleged car. The case has even attracted the keen attention of Muslim leaders who believe that Damanik is innocent and that what has happened is a miscarriage of justice. Even most of Damanik's defense team are Muslim and have offered their services at a much reduced rate because of their personal convictions concerning his innocence.
The Jakarta Post recently reported on the testimony of one expert witness:
Prof. J. E. Sahetapy, an expert witness in the trial of minister Rinaldy Damanik, told the Palu District Court the police engineered the arrest of the defendant.
"I was the first person to say that the police should be separated from the then Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) during former president Soeharto's tenure. I want the police to be professional, independent and no longer engineer cases. But the police still behave like they did during the New Order, engineering Rev. Damanik's case," he said.
The police have charged Damanik under Law No. 12/1951 on the illegal ownership of weapons. The defendant was arrested on Aug. 17, 2002, as he and a number of other activists were evacuating Christians from Poso, which at the time was experiencing sectarian violence.
The defendant was charged with illegally possessing seven homemade rifles, four pistols and 144 bullets.
Sahetapy, who is also a legislator with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), called on the panel of judges hearing the case, led by I Wayan Somanada, to acquit the defendant of all charges. He claimed the arrest and subsequent interrogation of Damanik violated the Criminal Code.
He said the police's behavior in this case resembled their handling of the 1995 murder of labor activist Marsinah in Sidoarjo, East Java. In that case, several soldiers and executives of the watch factory where Marsinah was employed were acquitted of all charges.
Sahetapy also told the court that he spoke with a soldier who was present at Damanik's arrest who claimed the whole arrest was a setup.
"The soldier told me that the handmade rifles and guns found inside Damanik's car were planted, but I don't want to disclose his identity," he testified.
He also said the defendant could not be said to have been caught red-handed in the possession of illegal firearms because the arrest was not witnessed by the head of the village where the apprehension took place."
Rev Damanik's legal team are currently appealing the guilty verdict and three year sentence. Their appeal is before the Supreme Court in Jakarta.