One of Buni's lawyers, Aldwin Rahardian, said on Tuesday he saw there has been no transparent legal process of his client's case starting from the time the case was investigated until he was named a suspect.

"Pak Buni feels this [case] is a form of criminalization," Aldwin told reporters, prior to a pretrial hearing requested by his client at the South Jakarta District Court on Tuesday.

"We, his lawyers, have noticed that there have been parts of the overall legal processes that have been skipped," he further said.

Aldwin did not give details on what legal processes police investigators had skipped. He just stated that when his client was questioned for the first time at the Jakarta Police headquarters on Nov. 23, "he was immediately given a letter of arrest and was named suspect".

Buni filed a pretrial motion against being named a suspect. The pretrial hearing is set to kick off around noon on Tuesday.

Buni is suspected of violating Article 28 of the Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE) Law, for inciting religious and ethnic hatred, which is punishable with up to six years of imprisonment.

Buni was previously reported by some of Ahok's supporters to the Jakarta Police for uploading a truncated version of a video that showed Ahok mentioning a Quranic verse when he spoke in front of a group of fishermen in Thousand Islands on Sept. 27.

Ahok's remarks have triggered uproars among Islamic organizations, which eventually led to his naming as a blasphemy suspect. Ahok's first trial kicked off on Tuesday morning at the North Jakarta District Court, which is temporarily located at the former Central Jakarta District Court building on Jl. Gajah Mada, Central Jakarta. (ebf)

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