He Was Arrested in Borneo. Two Days Later He Was on a Plane to the Only Province in Indonesia That Runs on Islamic Law.
He was buying supplies for his church when they came. The charge was not the one everybody assumes.
Dedi Saputra was carrying supplies for his church when the police took him.
He and his wife had been out buying personal items and things the congregation needed. Suka Maju is a village in the Sungai Betung District of Bengkayang Regency, in West Kalimantan, on the Indonesian side of Borneo. He is 31. He had been a Muslim once, in Aceh, before he became a pastor here.
That was February 18. He has not been free since.
The officers who came for him did not keep him long. They held him at the Bengkayang Police Resort, then at the West Kalimantan Regional Police headquarters, and on February 20 they put him on a plane to Banda Aceh, at the northern tip of Sumatra, the other end of the country. He had not been living there. What had traveled there was a video.
