TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Recommendation on Ahok's suspension to be submitted to President soon: Home Ministry
Change Size
Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama attends his trial as prosecutors (left in background) look on at the North Jakarta District Court in Jakarta on Tuesday. Ahok is on trial for blasphemy for remarking on a passage in the Quran that could be interpreted as prohibiting Muslims from accepting non-Muslims as leaders. (Pool Photo via AP/Adek Berry)
T
he Home Ministry is processing a recommendation for Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama to be suspended after receiving a letter from the North Jakarta District Court explaining the blasphemy charges against Ahok on Monday.
"We are processing the minister's recommendation regarding Ahok's suspension to submit to the President soon," the secretary to the ministry’s director general of regional autonomy, Anselmus Tan, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
According to the 2014 Regional Administrations Law, a court can notify the Home Ministry if a regional leader faces a criminal charge that carries a maximum prison sentence of five years or more.
Ahok has been charged under articles 156 and 156a of the Criminal Code on blasphemy, which carry maximum sentences of four and five years’ imprisonment, respectively.
"We have used the alternative article in the charge [Article 156a], which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, in our recommendation. It will be up to the President to decide about the suspension," he said.
The law regulates that a governor or deputy governor who faces criminal charges can be suspended by a presidential decree, Anselmus said.
Previously, the ministry’s director general of regional autonomy, Sumarsono, said that should Ahok be suspended, Jakarta Deputy Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat would be appointed acting governor until October 2017.
A newly elected governor and deputy governor will be inaugurated in December 2017, he explained.(jun)
