Vento Saudale – The chief of Bogor's public order agency says he has been named a police suspect for blocking people from praying outside the illegally sealed GKI Yasmin church last October.

"I was just doing my duty," Bambang Budianto, head of the agency, known as Satpol PP, said on Friday in Bogor.

In violation of a 2010 Supreme Court order to open it, the Bogor administration has sealed off the church under the pretext that its congregation leaders doctored a petition to obtain the church's building permit.

Since 2008, the congregation has been forced to hold Sunday services on the sidewalk outside the church or in the homes of parishioners, in the face of continued protests and intimidation by Islamic hard-line groups. The church has been offered a new location and compensation, but so far has refused to move.

Bambang confirmed that he has been summoned by the West Java Police as a suspect for violating Article 175 of the Criminal Code on restricting people's freedom of worship. "I was summoned to come on Friday," he said. "But it was delayed until Monday because I had an important meeting."

While the Supreme Court's ruling is clear, the government's reluctance to enforce it has caused uncertainty over the status of GKI Yasmin.

Anti-church groups in Bogor have insisted on blocking worshippers from entering the church, prompting a series of violent clashes. The first confrontation began in April 2010 when Satpol PP sealed off the church for the first time, and the second in October last year when officers blocked the congregation from praying on the sidewalk in front of the church.

The police are under pressure to balance their response after earlier naming church member Jayadi Damanik a suspect for an incident in October, during which Bambang was allegedly knocked unconscious in a confrontation with worshippers. Jayadi has been charged with unpleasant conduct and assault, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years.

Both sides reported each other to the police after the incident. Bambang filed a complaint against Jayadi, saying he had attacked him, while the church reported Bambang to the police for twice obstructing its services.

Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto has also been criticized for ignoring the Supreme Court order to lift the ban that he placed on the church in 2008. He insists there are indications the congregation falsified local residents' signatures needed to obtain a construction permit for the church.

Earlier, the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and civil society groups called for the central government to intervene in the dispute. "All it takes is a little courage from the president and his ministers to take action against the mayor," Indah Kurnia of the PDI-P said recently.

Indah said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should see the case as a test that would determine the future of religious freedom in the country.