Ninth Circuit En Banc Decision on Indonesian Christian Asylum Claims

Lolong v. Gonzales, 484 F.3d 1173 (9th Cir. 2007) en banc.

Last May, the Ninth Circuit released  their long awaited en banc decision on the fate of thousands of  Indonesian Christians who filed  for asylum premised upon their persecution  "on account" of their religious beliefs.  

In the decision authored by the Honorable Jay S. Bybee, the court held that in the case of Marjorie Konda Lolong, she had nothing to fear back in Indonesia because the government is not "unable or unwilling to control the perpetrators of this violence." Id. at 1180.  The decision opines further, "the government of Indonesia  has  shown its general commitment to freedom of religion and its lack of institutional discrimination against the ethnic Chinese minority."  

The court I believed feared a general  grant of asylum to any and all ethnic Indonesian Christian Chinese.  The larger effect of this en banc decision however is  to give the green light to all pending asylum claims by this persecuted group and they are being denied relief as quickly as the wheels of justice can deliver it.