TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Mamun, the Director General of Corrections for the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, has explained the controversial decision to grant remission to former Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok).

He said that any convict is entitled to remission provided they meet the applicable terms. “A convict must meet two requirements to receive a remission: administrative and substantive requirements,” he told Tempo in a phone interview today.

The administrative requirements include the obligation to spend over six months in jail. “Whereas the substantive requirements are having a good behavior and refrain from violating the rules…” he said.

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The length of remission of sentence for religious holidays is 15 days according to the Presidential Decree No. 174/1999, Mamun said.

Ahok lawyer I Wayan Sudirta confirmed that his client will receive 15 days’ remission on December 25.

It would be the first remission of sentence for Ahok since going to jail. The man did not get any on the Independence Day on August 17 since he had only spent less than six months in jail.

Former Jakarta governor Ahok is sentenced to two years in prison for blasphemy against Islam in relation to his speech on the Seribu Islands last year. He is now imprisoned at the Police’s Mobile Brigade Headquarters in Depok, West Java.

DEWI NURITA