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Police nab 12 doomsday sect leaders

The Jakarta Post, Indonesia
Nov. 12, 2003
Yuli Tri Suwarni
www.thejakartapost.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Tuesday November 11, 2003

Police here detained on Tuesday 12 leaders of a Christian “doomsday” sect for questioning as suspects charged with false religious teaching that may have led to mass suicide.

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The detainees could face five years in prison if proven guilty of violating Article 156 (a) of the Criminal Code on the misuse or besmirching of a religion, they added.

“We detained only 12 people, who claimed to be prophets playing a key role in spreading the Sibuea teaching,” Bandung Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Eko Hadi Sutedjo said, referring to the Sibuea church.

He said they included Michael and Daniel, sons of the sect’s top leader, Mangapin Sibuea, detained since Oct. 23 on charges of disgracing religion.

Sibuea, 59, who calls himself the Apostle Paulus II, announced in January that “doomsday” would take place on Nov. 10, 2003.

The 12 suspects were among 183 followers of the sect removed by police on Monday as they gathered inside the Sibuea Church to await “Judgment Day,” scheduled for 3 p.m. the same day.

The removal was assisted by local Christian church leaders.

Many of the 283 followers, including children and women, came from the provinces of Papua, Maluku, Sulawesi and East Nusa Tenggara.

Except for the 12 charged suspects, other members would be sent home so they could rejoin their respective churches, Sutedjo said. “We consider them to be misguided victims of improper religious teaching.”

He said the police had also seized as evidence hundreds of sharp weapons, such as knives, scissors and razor blades, as well as books and VCDs at the “Prophet House,” where the followers had gathered since Friday.

The doomsday followers were evacuated because the police feared they could commit mass suicide if the apocalypse did not occur as expected.

The police entered the Sibuea church, located on Jl. Siliwangi 73, Bandung, shortly after the 3 p.m. deadline passed for the “end of the world.”

The sect had been banned by the West Java Prosecutor’s Office in 1999 and declared illegal.

In 2000, a similar doomsday sect emerged in the Central Java regency of Rembang, where a group allowed free sex for followers and obliged its female members to engage in sexual relations with the group’s leaders.