Jakarta (AsiaNews) – 41 Christians arrested in Malang, Indonesia will have to answer to judge over accusations that they blasphemed Islam. By tomorrow the East Java procurators office will have all the documentation gathered by agents to prove that the people who were stopped, all members of the Indonesian Students Service Agency (LPMI), where the producers of a controversial video deemed to offend the Koran.
The LPMI is an organisation which gathers together diverse protestant confessions; its East Java section produced and distributed a video of an hours duration in which they show a gathering of young people dressed in typical Muslim garb, who are praying in a circle to the background sound of Christian song. A priest leading the prayer meeting points his finger to the Koran, describing it as the “source of all evil in Indonesia, from violence to terrorism”. LPMI’S national leaders immediately distanced themselves from the film.
AW and JK – suspected of masterminding the video— are currently under house arrest after spending over one month in prison. Other suspected blasphemers are being held in Malang jail, among them some female students.
Article 156 A of the Indonesian penal code establishes a minimum sentence of 5 years in prison for offending religion. Ethnic race or social discrimination is also punishable by law.
