An Indonesian court ruled on Tuesday that witness testimony will be
closed to the media in the blasphemy trial of the capital’s minority
Christian governor.
Jakarta Governor Basuki ‘Ahok’ Tjahaja Purnama is charged with
insulting Islam and desecrating the Quran by using one of its verses to
boost his chances of winning re-election.
Ahok, 50, is seeking a second
term as governor in elections due in February.
The blasphemy controversy erupted when a video circulated online in
which Ahok lightheartedly said people were being deceived if they
believed his detractors who asserted that the Koran prohibits Muslims
from having a non-Muslim leader.
A five-judge panel ruled that journalists will not be allowed to
cover witness testimony during the trial and that spectators can’t bring
mobile phones inside the courtroom.
Testimony began shortly after the
decision was announced Tuesday.
Presiding Judge Dwiarso Budi Santiarto ordered journalists to leave
the packed courtroom at the North Jakarta District Court shortly after
he opened the hearing.
One of Ahok’s lawyers, Trimoelja Soerjadi, said the ruling was aimed
at protecting the witnesses given the huge amount of attention the trial
has received in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
He said that none of the four people who reported Ahok to police and
testified Tuesday directly heard what Ahok said when he visited a
fishing village in northern Jakarta.
Muchsin Alatas, one of the witnesses, told reporters after testifying
that Ahok was using the Koran for his political interests. “He was
insulting Koran, that’s why I reported him to the police … justice must
be done,” he said.
Protests against Ahok, led by conservative Muslims and which drew
hundreds of thousands of people, have kept Jakarta on edge for weeks.
A
November 4 protest there turned violent, with one death and dozens of
police and protesters injured.
The trial could take two to three months.