CNN
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A Muslim girl has been sentenced to 2 years in jail below Indonesia’s blasphemy legislation over a video she shared on TikTok which confirmed her reciting an Islamic prayer earlier than making an attempt out pork whereas visiting the vacationer island of Bali.
Lina Lutfiawati, often known as Lina Mukherjee on social media, was tried on Tuesday within the Palembang district courtroom on Sumatra island.
The 33-year-old was discovered responsible of “spreading info aimed toward inciting hatred in opposition to spiritual people and particular teams,” courtroom paperwork learn.
Along with her two-year jail sentence, the courtroom fined her $16,245 (250,000,000 Indonesian rupiah), a small fortune in a rustic the place the annual per capita wage is round $4,300. Her jail time period may very well be prolonged by three months if she doesn’t pay the effective, the courtroom added.
Talking to reporters outdoors courtroom on Tuesday after the trial, Mukherjee expressed shock on the sentence.
“I do know I used to be incorrect however I actually didn’t anticipate this punishment,” she mentioned, in feedback carried by CNN affiliate, CNN Indonesia. It’s doable that she is going to file an enchantment, CNN Indonesia added.
Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim nation, the place 231 million individuals, no less than 93% of its grownup inhabitants, determine as Muslim.
Spiritual conservatism has been on the rise within the nation lately and rights teams have warned that blasphemy legal guidelines are being “more and more weaponized” in opposition to spiritual minorities and people deemed to have insulted Islam.
Pork is forbidden in Islam and consuming it stays taboo amongst most Indonesian Muslims. However the meat is often consumed by hundreds of thousands of non-Muslims, together with the nation’s ethnic Chinese language inhabitants as properly these dwelling on the Hindu-majority island of Bali.
Mukherjee, who identifies as Muslim, instructions a mixed social media following of greater than 2 million.
Recognized for her life-style and meals movies displaying her sampling varied dishes, she acquired backlash over a video she shared on TikTok in March, which confirmed her sitting at a eating desk and reciting the Islamic phrase “Bismillah” (Within the identify of Allah) earlier than consuming crispy pork pores and skin.
Bismillah is among the most vital and customary holy phrases in Islam. It’s the first phrase within the Quran and is usually uttered by Muslims earlier than consuming. It’s also steadily used as a generic declaration.
The video, which Mukherjee mentioned had been filmed when she was touring in Bali, featured her making an attempt babi guling, a preferred road meals of rice and chunks of spit-roasted pork and crackling served with greens.
She speaks into the digicam and grimaces as she tries a bit of pork crackling.
The video drew hundreds of thousands of views however was condemned by spiritual teams, together with the Indonesian Ulema Council, the nation’s high Muslim clerical physique, which issued a ruling calling it “blasphemous.”
It additionally prompted a public grievance which sparked police investigations, which led to Mukherjee being prosecuted.
Photographs and movies taken of Mukherjee all through the trial and carried by CNN Indonesia usually confirmed her in tears and accompanied by a heavy safety presence.
“She’s carried out nothing incorrect however it says so much about (the state of) Indonesia… how a self-proclaimed reasonable Muslim nation is turning into a radicalized Muslim nation,” Human Rights Watch’s Indonesia researcher Andreas Harsono advised CNN.
“The blasphemy chapter within the prison code has been elevated from one to 6 articles – a severe setback to defending freedom of faith and perception in Indonesia,” he added. “It bucks a worldwide development to both not implement blasphemy legal guidelines or to scrap them altogether.”
Certainly one of Indonesia’s most high-profile blasphemy instances was that of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese language Indonesian politician extensively often known as Ahok who served as Jakarta’s first non-Muslim governor in 50 years.
He went on trial for blasphemy in 2017 after angering hard-line Muslims by referencing a verse from the Quran whereas campaigning for re-election in 2016 and was jailed for 2 years regardless of making a public apology.