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Judges set aside edited video in Ahok’s trial
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Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama attends a hearing of his blasphemy trial at the North Jakarta District Court. (Media Indonesia/POOL/Ramdani/via JP)
T
he controversial, edited video that started the controversial blasphemy case against Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama is not legally admissible in the trial of the case it initiated, judges have decided.
As a result, judges decided that the video, which was uploaded to Facebook by a man named Buni Yani, could not be played in any hearing of the trial on Tuesday.
Presiding Judge Dwiarso Budi Santiarto said the video could not be categorized as evidence in the case because it had not been confiscated by police during the investigation process and had been submitted to the West Java Prosecutor’s Office as part of a criminal case against the uploader himself.
“We have decided not to use it,” Dwiarso said on Tuesday.
(Read also: Religious expert says Ahok's remarks blasphemous)
However, Ahok’s defense team said that it was important for the court to watch the video because it was what had started the controversy.
Ahok’s lawyer Humprey Djemat said that by watching Buni’s video, the court could see that the case had been started by an edited video that was posted on his Facebook page on Oct. 6 with the intention of sparking controversy.
Humprey referred to the way that Buni had framed the content in the video, with an accompanying text that was similar to Ahok’s remarks but lacked the word “pakai” or “use”.
In the original video, Ahok said “ladies and gentlemen […] you have been deceived by the use of Al Maidah 51 [of the Quran],” meanwhile, in the accompanying texts of Buni’s video, it was written “ladies and gentlemen [Muslim voters] have been deceived by Al Maidah 51.”
The legal team subsequently decided not to continue their objection.
