In a rare move in Indonesia, an administrative court earlier this year overturned a local 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 in 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 site where his church met, he said in a podcast last year.
The sealing of the worship site was part of a local government effort to reclaim several shops that the 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 statement that defense objections to the shophoue owners’ lawsuit were unacceptable, according to KBRN radio.
“We greatly appreciate the verdict,” Sonny Saragih, chairman of the Legal Assistance Institute HOPE, which represented the church, reportedly said. “The judge has considered it wisely, and this 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, according to 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 verdict and questioned it, kredonews.com reported.
“We consider that the eviction letter is correct because the occupants have not fulfilled the obligations that they should 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 since the occupants don’t want 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 close to the Jombang Regency Government, concurred that the occupants do not pay rent.
“It is purely 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 first floor of the shophouse as a store and the second floor as a church, Pastor Herri is now running a business in the complex.
Pastor Herri filed a lawsuit against the Jombang government on Nov. 27 but lost the case, after which he refiled in the Surabaya State Administrative Court and won.
The pastor asserts that was not the tenant but the owner of the shophouse, said his former attorney, Sri Sugeng Pujiatmiko.
“Mr. Herri Soesanto bought it, he bought it from a company that obtained management rights from the government,” Pujiatmiko said. “So according to him, he has legal rights.”
A local government source, however, said a private company in collaboration with the local government built the shophouse complex and therefore 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 private company and thus does not have to pay rent.
“The developer did not tell us about the scheme at all,” he said adding that shop owners had a 2016 building-use rights certificate that they continued using even though it expired in 2016, as it is common in Indonesia to postpone legalities as long as payments are made.
The church tried to extend 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 year,” he said.
Thus, although the church had bought the property and paid land and building taxes without the developer telling them about the arrangement with the government to develop it, the developer and officials demanded they pay rent, he said.
