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Rizieq sentenced to eight months in prison for flouting COVID-19 curbs
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Islam Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab arrives at The Jakarta Metro Police Headquarter in Jakarta, Saturday, December 12, 2020. Rizieq was summoned by the police after he and five other people were named as suspects for holding crowd-pulling events in his house and at the group’s headquarters in Petamburan, Central Jakarta, in breach of COVID-19 health protocol last month. (JP /JP/Seto Wardhana.)
T
he East Jakarta District Court sentenced on Thursday hardline Muslim cleric Rizieq Shihab to eight months in prison and fined him Rp 20 million (US$1,400) for breaching coronavirus curbs after his return last year from self-imposed exile.
A livestream of the court hearing showed Rizieq, the spiritual leader of an outlawed Islamist vigilante group the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), dressed in a white tunic, turban and face mask, clutching prayer beads.
Judge Suparman Nyompa handed Rizieq the prison term for violating the Health Quarantine Law in relation to several mass events, including his daughter's wedding, which was attended by thousands.
Separately, he was fined for an event held at an Islamic boarding school in West Java.
Read also: FPI leader Rizieq Shihab named suspect for holding crowd-pulling events
Prosecutors had sought a two-year prison sentence for inciting his followers to attend mass gatherings, though he was cleared of this charge.
Some 3,000 police officers were deployed to guard the courthouse in East Jakarta ahead of the verdict, but there were no big protests by his supporters.
Rizieq returned to Indonesia in November 2020 after three years in Saudi Arabia, to which he had fled to reportedly evade charges of pornography and insulting the state ideology. Both charges were later dropped.
Thousands of his followers thronged the airport to celebrate his return and then joined mass events in the days that followed, despite rules to limit gatherings as Indonesia grappled with the worst coronavirus outbreak in Southeast Asia.
His legal team claimed the cases were politically motivated and part of efforts to silence the cleric, who has a large and vocal following in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country.
Read also: Jakarta military commander says he ordered removal of banners depicting Rizieq Shihab
The FPI has become politically influential in Indonesia in recent years and was among several Islamic groups that staged rallies in 2016 to bring down Jakarta's then-Christian governor on charges of blasphemy. The mass protests against the governor caused deep anxiety within the government of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo about a perceived Islamist threat.
The government has since sought to crackdown on some Islamist groups, including by banning FPI and Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI).
In December 2020, police killed six of Rizieq's supporters in a shootout, saying they had acted in self-defense after weapons were pointed at them. The FPI accused the police of carrying out extrajudicial killings.
