P

rosecutors will present two eyewitnesses to testify against Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama during the seventh hearing of the incumbent’s blasphemy trial on Tuesday.

The court, presided over by judge Dwiarso Budi Santiarto, will hear testimony from Yuli Hardi, the subdistrict head of Panggang Island, Thousand Islands regency, and Nurkholis Majid, a temporary worker in Jakarta’s communications, information and public relations department, who recorded Ahok’s speech referencing Surah Al-Maidah 51 on Sept. 27.

“The prosecutors will present two eyewitnesses, but we will ask the judges to examine three witnesses who denounced Ahok first,” Ahok’s defense lawyer Fifi Lety Indra told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Dwiarso adjourned a hearing on Jan. 17 after lawyers refused to hear testimony from Yuli and Nurkholis, who were unscheduled witnesses at that time.

The prosecution team, led by Ali Mukartono, proposed hearing Yuli and Nurkholis’ testimony because three scheduled witnesses, Ibnu Baskoro, Muhammad Asroi Saputra and Iman Sudirman, who earlier reported Ahok to the police for blasphemy, failed to attend the hearing.

Dwiarso sustained the lawyer’s objection the unscheduled witnesses because the court wanted to pursue material truth, he said. Prosecutors have presented 10 witnesses for their case.