In a rare move in Indonesia, an administrative court earlier this 12 months overturned a neighborhood government order for a church to vacate its worship site, sources said.
The Jombang Regency Government in East Java is appealing the March 19 ruling of Surabaya State Administrative Court that overturned the regency’s order for owners of the Simpang Tiga shop-housing complex in Jombang to vacate their premises, including Herri Soesanto, pastor of Good God Church, and his wife Liliek Soenarto.
When the couple’s shophouse church within the complex was forcibly closed on Aug. 18, 2024, about 50 officials from Jombang Regency dragged Pastor Herry from the worship site and sealed the location where his church met, he said in a podcast last 12 months.
The sealing of the worship site was a part of a neighborhood government effort to reclaim several shops that the federal government asserts it owns. The complex is in Jombang, about 50 miles west of Surabaya, capital of East Java Province.
The three-judge panel overturned the order with a press release that defense objections to the shophoue owners’ lawsuit were unacceptable, in line with KBRN radio.
“We greatly appreciate the decision,” Sonny Saragih, chairman of the Legal Assistance Institute HOPE, which represented the church, reportedly said. “The judge has considered it properly, and it is a step forward in upholding good governance.”
An attorney for the local government, Yaumassyifa, said on March 27 that officials would file an appeal, in line with kredoNews.com.
Yaumassyifa said the property legally belongs to the Jombang Regency Government. A spokesperson for the Jombang Non-Governmental Organization Alliance, Suhartono, said he was surprised at the decision and questioned it, kredonews.com reported.
“We consider that the eviction letter is correct since the occupants haven’t fulfilled the obligations that they need to comply,” Suhartono reportedly said, adding that he doubted the competence of the judges. “The shophouse is on land owned by the Jombang Regency Government, and for the reason that occupants don’t wish to pay rent, evicting them is correct.”
Suhartono said he would report the case to the Judicial Commission and the Corruption Eradication Commission.
Hadi S. Purwanto, an activist near the Jombang Regency Government, concurred that the occupants don’t pay rent.
“It is only because Pastor Herri Soesanto as a tenant doesn’t pay the rent to the local government. It has nothing to do with the church,” Hadi told Morning Star News, explaining that besides using the primary floor of the shophouse as a store and the second floor as a church, Pastor Herri is now running a business within the complex.
Pastor Herri filed a lawsuit against the Jombang government on Nov. 27 but lost the case, after which he refiled within the Surabaya State Administrative Court and won.
The pastor asserts that was not the tenant however the owner of the shophouse, said his former attorney, Sri Sugeng Pujiatmiko.
“Mr. Herri Soesanto bought it, he bought it from an organization that obtained management rights from the federal government,” Pujiatmiko said. “So in line with him, he has legal rights.”
An area government source, nonetheless, said a personal company in collaboration with the local government built the shophouse complex and due to this fact can charge rent.
“The residents argued that the shophouses they occupy were purchased from the PT [company] and unrelated to the rent scheme set by the local government,” the source told Jatimnews.com.
Pastor Herri said he bought the shophouse from a personal company and thus doesn’t must pay rent.
“The developer didn’t tell us in regards to the scheme in any respect,” he said adding that shop owners had a 2016 building-use rights certificate that they continued using though it expired in 2016, as it’s common in Indonesia to postpone legalities so long as payments are made.
The church tried to increase the validity period of the building-use rights certificate, but officials denied it, demanding that they pay rent and back-rent, he said.
“In 2022, the local government asked us buyers to pay the rent from 2016 to 2021, with a payment of 19,105,000 rupiah [$1,228 USD] per 12 months,” he said.
Thus, although the church had bought the property and paid land and constructing taxes without the developer telling them in regards to the arrangement with the federal government to develop it, the developer and officials demanded they pay rent, he said.
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