Chinese Christian Couple Denied Deportation Relief

BOSTON (CN) - The 1st Circuit ruled that although a Chinese Christian couple were beaten, robbed and poisoned in Indonesia, they were not eligible for deportation relief because they failed to prove that the mistreatment was based on their religion or ethnicity.

Jansen Koloay and Petra Sompotan asserted that men entered their restaurant in Jakarta, demanded money and cigarettes from Koloay, and beat him with a stick when he refused to hand over the goods. They then allegedly knocked Sompotan to the ground, and took her necklace and watch, calling her a "crazy Christian" and "Chinese bastard."

The couple further claimed that looters wearing red bandanas robbed their restaurant during the 1998 Jakarta riots, and that Muslim neighbors gave them poisoned fish.

Judge Cudahy said the racial slurs were the only link between the alleged persecution and the petitioners' ethnicity.

"It is critical that petitioners show a 'nexus' between the alleged persecution and one of the statutorily protected grounds," Cudahy wrote. "The fact that hooligans would stoop to the level of using racial slurs is, unfortunately, not surprising."

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