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Woman faces 1.5 years for complaining about adzan

A Chinese-Indonesian woman and follower of the Buddhist faith in Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra, is facing a possible 1

Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, August 15, 2018

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Woman faces 1.5 years for complaining about adzan

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Chinese-Indonesian woman and follower of the Buddhist faith in Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra, is facing a possible 1.5-year prison sentence for a 2016 remark about a mosque’s loudspeaker that prosecutors say offended her Muslim neighbors and also triggered an anti-Chinese riot.

Meiliana, 44, burst into tears after the prosecutors demanded on Monday that she be found guilty of blasphemy, as stipulated under articles 156 and 156A of the Criminal Code, and be sentenced to 1.5 years
in prison.

Meiliana is being tried at the Medan District Court following her arrest on May 30 this year. She reportedly disappeared after the North Sumatra Police charged her with blasphemy in January 2017 based on a fatwa issued by the local chapter of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI).

The case began in July 2016 when Meiliana, who at the time had lived in Tanjung Balai for eight years, complained about the volume of adzan (call to prayer) from a speaker at a nearby mosque.

She reportedly said the adzan was “too loud” and “hurt” her ears, and asked a neighbor to lower the speaker’s volume.

On July 29, 2016, a mosque staff member came by her house to confirm her request, prosecutor Anggia Y. Kesuma told the court.

Meilina, she claimed, confirmed her request, saying that the loudspeaker had deafened her.

Anggia went on to say that her remarks angered the mosque’s staff. Lian Tui, Meiliana’s husband, apologized for the incident, but the resentment spread, even to outside Tanjung Balai.

The incident triggered the biggest anti-Chinese riot the country has seen since 1998, with four Buddhist temples burned down by angry mobs who initially gathered in front of Meiliana’s house.

The mob destroyed prayer equipment, Buddha statues, tables, chairs, lamps and several cars and motorbikes, police said.

The police arrested 19 people for their role in the riot. Eight were charged with looting, nine with malicious destruction of property and two with inciting violence. All were given one to four month jail sentences.

Meiliana’s lawyer, Ranto Sibarani, denied the prosecutor’s claims, saying that the blasphemy charges against his client were based on hearsay and that no one had directly heard her say all the words she was accused of saying.

“Everything is based on one statement,” he said, adding that his client was only privately asking her neighbor why the volume of the mosque’s speaker had grown louder.

The trial has been postponed until Thursday when the defense team is scheduled to present its counter to the prosecutor’s demands. The court is expected to issue its verdict next week.

Meiliana is the latest person to be charged under the nation’s Blasphemy Law, which human rights activists have widely criticized as draconian, particularly toward minority groups.

M. Isnur from the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that Meilina should not have been prosecuted.

“This is an old case that was brought up again,” he said, adding that public pressure was likely the main driver of her prosecution.

“In a blasphemy case like this, [law enforcement officials] often listen to the MUI’s fatwas.”

The most prominent public figure convicted of blasphemy is former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama who was imprisoned for a statement he made in reference to a Quranic verse.

His conviction was supported by an MUI fatwa, which was used as a pretext for a series of major rallies calling for Ahok’s prosecution and later used as supporting evidence that led to Ahok’s conviction last year. (sau)

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