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Controversial cleric returns to jail three days after release on parole
Authorities arrested controversial cleric Bahar Smith after they found him in violation of his parole for giving a “hate-speech” sermon and holding a mass gathering in spite of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB).
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Court officers escort controversial preacher Bahar bin Ali bin Smith (center), or Bahar Smith, out of a hearing at the Library and Archive Building in Bandung, West Java, on June 13, 2019. (The Jakarta Post/Arya Dipa)
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fter two days of freedom, controversial cleric Bahar bin Ali bin Smith – famously known as Bahar Smith – was sent back to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence after breaking the terms of his parole.
The cleric was released on Saturday after the Law and Human Rights Ministry declared him eligible for parole. According to a statement from the ministry, Bahar had signed an agreement not to violate any laws during his parole.
The ministry said authorities had later found him delivering a sermon containing “hate” for the government during a large religious gathering in violation of the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19.
“We hereby revoke his parole and order him to stay in prison during the remainder of his prison sentence,” the ministry wrote in a statement.
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Members of the ministry’s Corrections Directorate General and police officers took Bahar from his house to Gunung Sindur penitentiary in Bogor, West Java, at 3 a.m. on Tuesday and put him in a jail cell for high-risk inmates.
Bahar was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay Rp 50 million (US$3,386) in fines in July of last year for assaulting two teenagers, identified by their initials CAJ, 18, and MK, 18, for mocking him during their stay in Bali.
The two teenagers’ actions upset Bahar, prompting him to hit them and shave them bald.
He was also named a suspect in a hate-speech case against President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in December 2018, although there has yet to be any progress on the case.
