On 25 January 2026, in front of the St. Francis Xavier Cathedral Church, Merauke, South Papua Province, officers of the Merauke police arbitrarily arrested and arbitrarily detained Fransiskus Nikolaus and 10 other members of Suara Kaum Awam Katolik Regio Papua. This occurs when they were staging a silent protest regarding the Church’s role and state-backed development policies affecting indigenous Malind Anim and other indigenous communities in South Papua. Three of them were beaten. After being detained at the Merauke Police Station, they were released on the same day.