Death Penalty News

JAKARTA, Indonesia — When Joko Widodo, the incumbent president of Indonesia, last year chose Ma’ruf Amin as his running mate for the general election this April, it became clear that Indonesian politics is now backed into a corner. Mr. Ma’ruf is an Islamic cleric and scholar, and Mr. Joko was perhaps hoping to dampen attacks from conservative and radical Islamic groups that have called him anti-Islam (even though he is Muslim himself). Instead, he has built a Trojan horse for his opponents outside the walls of his own city. The presidential race, in which Mr. Joko is again facing Prabowo Subianto, a ex-army general and former son-in-law of the dictator Suharto, looks like a replay of the 2014 contest. Back then, Mr. Joko won by a small margin, on a platform promising a grand maritime strategy for Indonesia and to revitalize the economy partly through major infrastructure projects. This year, it seems, the decisive issue will be the candidates’ professed commitment to Islam. ...

A Chinese-Indonesian woman of the Buddhist faith has been sentenced to 1.5 years in prison for complaining about the volume of the azan (Islamic call to prayer) that was blasted from a speaker of a mosque near her house. Meiliana, 44, a resident of Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra, was found guilty of blasphemy as stipulated under articles 156 and 156A of the Criminal Code on blasphemy, the Medan District Court said on Tuesday. “[We] declare that the defendant is legally and compellingly proven guilty of […] committing blasphemy against a certain religion that is professed in Indonesia,” presiding judge Wahyu Prasetyo Wibowo said. “[We] sentenced the defendant to one and a half years in prison.” Meiliana is one of the first people to have been sentenced to prison for complaining about the volume of a mosque's speakers, despite a plea from the Indonesian Mosque Council, now led by Vice President Jusuf Kalla, for mosque staff to use loudspeakers wisely. Meiliana re...

A 21-year-old man named Martinus Gulo was sentenced to four years in prison by the Medan District Court yesterday after being found guilty of blasphemy. Martinus was arrested in Medan in March after he wrote a post likening the Islamic Prophet Muhammad to an animal on Facebook.  His arrest came after hardline group Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) reported him to the authorities over the post. “The convicted carried out an act prohibited by Article 28 Verse 2 from Law no. 11/2008 on Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE),” said presiding judge Fahren, as quoted by JawaPos yesterday. In addition to the four-year sentence, the court also ordered Martinus to pay a fine of IDR1 billion (US$68,914) in lieu of an additional six month prison sentence. Case prosecutors previously demanded a five-year sentence for Martinus, which is the maximum sentence for blasphemy. The court gave Martinus and his legal counsel five days to appeal the decision. Indones...

The Supreme Court has rejected former Jakarta governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama's case review petition against his blasphemy conviction, an official with the court has said.  Three judges — Artidjo Alkostar, Salman Luthan and Margiatmo — rejected the former Jakarta governor's challenge against his conviction, which sentenced him to two years in prison. "The appeal has been rejected," court's spokesperson Suhadi told The Jakarta Post on Monday. More than nine months after being convicted of blasphemy, Ahok officially challenged his conviction through a case review petition to the court. Ahok's lawyer and sister, Fify Lety Indra, said she believed the North Jakarta District Court had made a mistake in declaring Ahok guilty of blasphemy.  She said the guilty verdict against Buni Yani, a communications lecturer found guilty of tampering with video footage of a speech given by Ahok that was used as evidence to lodge the blasphe...

Within days of my arrival, Indonesia's president, Joko Widodo, rejected the clemency pleas of Bali Nine heroin smugglers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, despite their remarkable rehabilitation. From this moment their death by firing squad seemed inevitable. Reporting on the lead-up to the executions was like watching a film, heart in mouth, that you already know ends tragically. I barely slept for weeks. Relations between the two countries soured, exacerbated by Tony's Abbott's disastrous reminder of the billion dollars in aid Australia had donated after the 2004 tsunami. "Australia and Indonesia are like divorced parents who have to stay together for the sake of the children," one Indonesian official told me. The anger some Australians felt towards Indonesia at the time was visceral. I deplore the death penalty – now more than ever – but felt a responsibility not to fan the flames of hate. Many Indonesians see drug smuggling through a...

Claims he burned dozens of holy books accidentally The jailing of former Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama earlier this year on blasphemy charges that many believe to have been heavily politicized has led to renewed criticism of the country’s harsh blasphemy laws . A soldier in Jayapura, who yesterday was found guilty of defaming religion by burning holy books, is the latest blasphemer to be thrown into an Indonesian prison under questionable circumstances. Yesterday, a panel of Judges of the 3rd Military Court of Jayapura sentenced Second Sergeant Bangun Ahmad to 2.5 years in prison and dismissed him from his military unit for having been “legally and convincingly proven to defame religion.” Bangun Ahmad, who was a member of the border security task force, was accused of burning dozens of holy books on May 25 in a garbage bin located near his barracks. The former soldier said in his defense statement that he had taken the initiative to clean the wareh...

There have been many signs that Indonesia has been experiencing rapidly increasing conservatism in recent years, such as the rising influence of Islamic hardliners on politics (like their successful campaign against former Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama and the size of the recent anti-Myanmar protests). But how conservative are the views of your average Indonesian? According to the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, a think tank studying socio-political, security and economic trends in Southeast Asia, the recently published results of a survey that shows a significant percentage of Indonesian Muslims holding views that could be considered strongly conservative. Polling for the “ Indonesia National Survey Project: Economy, Society and Politics” (INSP) took place from May 20-30 and was conducted across all 34 Indonesian provinces (soon after the end of the Jakarta gubernatorial election). Muslims constitute 86.2% of the sample size (in line with a 2011 consensus t...

GENEVA: Laws prohibiting blasphemy are "astonishingly widespread" worldwide, with many laying down disproportionate punishments ranging from prison sentences to lashings or the death penalty, the lead author of a report on blasphemy said. Iran, Pakistan, and Yemen score worst, topping a list of 71 countries with laws criminalising views deemed blasphemous, found in all regions, according to a comprehensive report issued this month by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom . The bipartisan U.S. federal commission called for repeal of blasphemy statutes, saying they invited abuse and failed to protect freedoms of religion and expression. "We found key patterns. All deviate from freedom of speech principles in some way, all have a vague formulation, with different interpretations," Joelle Fiss, the Swiss-based lead author of the report told Reuters. The ranking is based on how a state's ban on blasphemy or criminalising of it cont...

Siti Aisyah, the owner of an Islamic learning center, has been sentenced to two years and six months in prison for spreading "misguided" Islamic teachings. Siti was found guilty of violating Article 156 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) on blasphemy. The sentence handed down by the Mataram District Court in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) is lighter than the prosecutor's demand of three years’ imprisonment. Presiding judge Didiek Jatmiko said Siti had been proven guilty of spreading teachings that contravened Islamic principles, kompas.com reported. Didiek said Siti did not admit her fault, insisting that what she taught did not go against the principles of Islam. Siti, who is the owner Rumah Mengenal Al-Quran (Home to learn Quran), had reportedly taught her followers that the Quran did not oblige Muslims to pray.  She also reportedly rejected Al-Hadist (Prophet Muhammad's words and attitudes) as a religious guideline. Source: Jakarta Post , August 21...