Man gets 5 years for insulting Islam on Facebook

Members of Indonesia’s Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) rally on the streets in Jakarta July 30, 2011. Members of the FPI are demanding the government to disband Ahmadiyah sect. Indonesia’s Assembly of Indonesian Muslim Clerics (MUI) considers the Ahmadiyah sect to be ‘heretical’ for believing that Mohammad was not Islam’s final prophet. — PHOTO: REUTERS

(The Jakarta Post) – The Bandung State Court has decided to add one more year to the prison term of Sebastian Joe, who was sentenced to four years imprisonment for blasphemy of Islam by the Ciamis District Court in West Java.

The state court decided on Tuesday to slap a higher sentence as it used the 2008 Information and Electronic Transaction (ITE) Law as a lex specialis (special law), instead of the Criminal Code (KUHP) used by the district court, said Sebastian’s lawyer, Anang Fitriana, as quoted by tempo.co on Wednesday.

Sebastian was reported by the Ciamis chapter of the Islamic Defender Front (FPI) last year for a Facebook status he made, which they considered insulting to Islam.

Anang said that he planned to appeal the case to the Supreme Court.