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FPI wins battle for total booze bans
The Supreme Court has accepted a judicial review filed by hard-line group the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) abolishing a presidential decree that prevented local administrations from prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages
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heSupreme Court has accepted a judicial review filed by hard-line group the IslamDefenders Front (FPI) abolishing a presidential decree that prevented localadministrations from prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages.
With the abolition of the 1997 decree on the control of alcoholic drinks, local administrations are now free to ban the sale and distribution of alcohol in their areas.
More than 22 regencies and municipalities, including Tangerang in Banten, and Depok and Indramayu in West Java, have issued bylaws prohibiting the sale of alcohol.
However, the bylaws have not been implemented as the Home Ministry annulled them because they were in contravention of the presidential decree.
'With the Supreme Court ruling, there is no other legal reason to annul any bylaws prohibiting the circulation and consumption of alcoholic beverages,' said FPI spokesman Munarman on Thursday.
The FPI, notorious for its violent raids on nightclubs and bars in protest against practices that it deems 'sinful', filed the judicial review in 2012 after the ministry annulled all bylaws limiting or banning the sale of alcoholic drinks.
Members of the FPI and Islamic People's Forum (FUI) rioted last year in front of the Home Ministry after it issued a regulation forcing regional administrations to annul the bylaws.
Last year the FPI raided minimarkets that sold alcoholic beverages in Tangerang.
Head of the Tangerang FPI Habib Muhammad bin Toha Assegaff claimed that the open sale of alcohol had contributed to recent rapes in Greater Jakarta.
'Alcoholic beverages are closely related to adultery,' he said.
