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FPI leader to testify against Ahok next week
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Islam Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab speaks to reporters before facing police questioning at the Jakarta Police headquarters on Feb. 1 as a witness in a treason case. The police arrested a woman who allegedly had intimate conversations with Rizieq, and later raided her house in East Jakarta. (Antara/Akbar Nugroho Gumay)
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slam Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab, a longtime nemesis of Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, will be presented as a witness in the latter’s 12th blasphemy hearing on Feb. 28, Ahok's defense team have revealed.
“Witnesses presented by the prosecutors will be Abdul Chair Ramadhan, an Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) criminal law expert, and Rizieq Shihab, the FPI leader,” Ahok’s lawyer, Edi Danggur, told reporters on Thursday.
(Read also: Rizieq skips police questioning citing fatigue)
He said that Rizieq would testify as a religious expert and had been recommended by the MUI in a letter signed by MUI executive Sodikun and secretary-general Anwar Abbas in November last year, tribunnews.com reported.
Rizieq, who has been named a suspect for allegedly insulting state ideology Pancasila, has been in the forefront of mass demonstrations against Ahok.
Last year, he led two large rallies to demand the prosecution and imprisonment of Ahok for an alleged blasphemous remark made during a working visit to Thousand Islands in September last year. (fac)
