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Life continues behind bars for Ahok
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Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama gestures as he sits as a defendant in the hearing of his blasphemy trial at the North Jakarta District Court on Tuesday. (Republika/Raisan Al Farisi/ Pool)
O
n Tuesday, Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama attended the 22nd hearing of his blasphemy trial at the North Jakarta District Court.
However, unlike in previous hearings, when he would return to his office at City Hall in Central Jakarta to resume his duties as Jakarta governor, after Tuesday’s hearing, Ahok was immediately transported to the Cipinang detention center in East Jakarta, where he is likely to spend the next two years after the court declared him guilty of blaspheming against Islam in a controversial trial that has divided the capital.
The verdict was delivered despite the prosecutors’ previous decision to drop the blasphemy charges and instead charge Ahok with showing animosity toward others, which carried a more lenient punishment. Human rights activists and international organizations say the case was driven by public pressure and political interests.
Soon after presiding judge Dwiarso Budi Santiarso concluded the hearing, Ahok kept silent as he was rushed to the detention center in a armored vehicle similar to the one used by the police to transfer terrorism convicts Abu Bakar Baasyir and Umar Patek.
“Like a bolt from the blue” was how Andi Analta Amier described the sentence of two years’ imprisonment handed down to his adoptive brother. The sentence locks Ahok behind bars, an outcome that Andi said had never been imagined by his family, especially following the relatively light demand by the prosecutors.
“Even his family did not get a chance to talk to him [Ahok]. We were really not ready for the prison sentence,” Andi told reporters after the hearing.
But while prison cells are usually a cold and uninviting place for inmates, a circulating photo suggests that Ahok received a warm welcome at the detention center.
