On 10 September 1984, Sergeant Hermanu,[1] a member of the Community Advisory Non-Commissioned Officer (Bintara Pembina Desa / Babinsa) arrived at As Saadah Mosque in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, and told the caretaker, Amir Biki, to remove brochures and banners critical of the government.

[2][3] In response, local residents, led by mosque caretakers Syarifuddin Rambe and Sofwan Sulaeman, burned his motorcycle and attacked Hermanu while he was talking with another officer.

[2][3][4] Two days after the arrest, Islamic cleric Abdul Qodir Jaelani gave a sermon against Pancasila at As Saadah mosque.

[7] These groups pushed for the People's Representative Council (DPR) and National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to further investigate the massacre; inside the DPR, representatives A.M. Fatwa and Abdul Qodir Jaelani, both previously arrested after the massacre, pressed for further investigation.

[13] In October 2000, Komnas HAM released another report indicating that 23 individuals, including Sutrisno and Moerdani, should be investigated for their involvement; it called for an ad hoc tribunal to look into the matter further.

[17] Those brought to trial included Colonel Sutrisno Mascung, leader of Platoon II of the Air Defense Artillery Battalion at the time, and 13 subordinates.

[18] Higher-ranking officials from the time, including Try Sutrisno and Benny Moerdani, were exempted from prosecution, as were former President Suharto and former Justice Minister Ismail Saleh.

[3] The trial was criticized by human rights groups and activists; German author Fabian Junge argued that "prosecutors deliberately ignored substantial evidence while scare-tactics and bribery were rampant outside court".

[11] Approaching the 25th anniversary of the massacre, the victims, aided by the Human Rights Working Group and the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, sent a letter to UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Gabriela Carina Knaul de Albuquerque e Silva, imploring her to intervene in the case.

[17][4] Although victims and their representatives asked President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to further investigate the issue, as of 2011[update] the case has not come to closure.