Suspects who threatened the pope arrested in Indonesia, local police say

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNS) — Not long after Pope Francis left Indonesia, authorities there announced they had arrested seven people for making online “terror threats” against the pope.

Aswin Siregar, spokesman for Densus 88, Indonesia’s counter-terrorism police unit, made the announcement Sept. 6 as Pope Francis was on his way to Papua New Guinea, the second stop on his four-nation tour of Asia and the Pacific.

The Strait Times reported that the seven were detained, “mostly on Sept 2 and 3, in Jakarta, in the outlying cities of Bogor and Bekasi, West Sumatra province and Bangka Belitung Islands province.”

Pope Francis visited Jakarta, Indonesia, Sept. 3-6, meeting with government and church leaders, attending an interreligious meeting at southeast Asia’s largest mosque and celebrating Mass in a soccer stadium.

According to The Strait Times, Siregar told reporters that the ongoing investigation has not established whether the seven people arrested knew each other or belonged to the same group.

The search of one of the suspect’s houses “yielded bows and arrows, a drone and ISIS leaflets,” the newspaper reported, citing a source.

Over the past 25 years, terrorist attacks attributed to groups related to al-Qaida and ISIS in Indonesia have killed hundreds of people, particularly foreigners and tourists in targeted hotels and restaurants. In response, the government has increased security and strengthened its ministry for religious affairs, and the country’s largest Muslim organizations have promoted interreligious dialogue and respect for other faiths.