12 May 2017•Update: 14 May 2017
By Ainur Rohmah
TUBAN, Indonesia
Indonesia Friday asked international community to respect its court’s decision against Jakarta governor over blasphemy charges.
A statement issued by Indonesian Foreign Ministry responds to criticism over two-year jail term handed down to Basuki Tjahaja Purnama.
Purnama -- a Christian of Chinese descent - was convicted on charges of insulting clergy and the Quran during a speech in September last year that triggered uproar across Indonesia -- the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Later in a bid to clarify his remarks, the governor said he had referred to "certain politicians" who had misused the Quran to influence voters not to choose a non-Muslim as a politician.
Purnama, backed by the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, conceded defeat to former Education Minister Anies Baswedan in the capital’s gubernatorial election last month.
Baswedan would assume the charge of governor in October.
"All parties must respect the legal mechanisms in Indonesia," a local news website detik.com quoted the foreign ministry's spokesman Arrmanata Nasir as saying.
Nasir said President Joko Widodo's has called on all citizens to respect the court's decision as well as the governor’s move to challenge the verdict.
Nevertheless, Nasir said, the government accepts all inputs from other countries that want Indonesia to review the law on religious blasphemy.
"We have to be careful in looking at the statements made by various parties over the past week, and we are certainly noting the statements made by them," he said.
Nasir said Indonesia will continue to pursue tolerance and harmony in the biggest Muslim country.
Previously, EU Delegation to Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam demanded the government and people to uphold their country's long-standing tradition of tolerance and pluralism.
“The EU has consistently stated that laws that criminalize blasphemy when applied in a discriminatory manner can have a serious inhibiting effect on freedom of expression and on freedom of religion or belief,” the Jakarta Post quoted the delegation as saying.
The UN's Bangkok Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in a tweet said: "We are concerned by jail sentence for Jakarta governor for alleged blasphemy against Islam. We call on Indonesia to review blasphemy law."
