TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia Usman Hamid has appealed to the government to scrap laws pertaining to blasphemy and religion-related crimes, which the institution deems unfair.
He added Amnesty International Indonesia also regretted the recent Supreme Court [MA]'s ruling that turned down ex-Jakarta governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama’s case review petition on the latter's blasphemy case.
“MA has lost their chance to fix an unfair law represented by the blasphemy law,” said Usman at the Amnesty International Indonesia headquarters on Thursday, April 5.
The Supreme Court has rejected Ahok’s case review on March 26, after its panel of judges found Ahok’s judicial review unacceptable.
Read: Amnesty International Slams Ahok's Guilty Verdict
Ahok’s sister-cum-lawyer Fifi Lety Indra, meanwhile, suspected there was an unfair element besetting the case review as she said the ruling was announced too early.
“There was something out of the ordinary when we lodge the case review, it was decided fairly quickly, it was immediately announced on the same day during the afternoon,” said Fify.
Usman explained the blasphemy law had put 12 people behind bars in 2017, and 106 people charged or incarcerated throughout 2005-2014 under such charges.
KARTIKA ANGGRAENI
