Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab, who is facing numerous criminal investigations including one for a pornography charge related to a sex scandal allegation, may soon be able to cry out that his human rights have been violated in order to distance himself from all the numerous allegations against him.
The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said they are going to carry out an investigation into allegations that Rizieq, as well as other ulemas, were criminalized in regards to the charges against them.
“We will listen to claims from various stakeholders, firstly from the Muslim community and the ulemas who were allegedly tortured, terrorized, criminalized and suspected of treason,” said Komnas HAM Commissioner Natalius Pigai, as quoted by Merdeka yesterday.
Pigai said that the criminalization allegation was reported to the commission by a team of advocates for groups that have been partaking in the mass protest movements to have Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama jailed for allegedly committing blasphemy against Islam.
For the next month, Komnas HAM will talk to the allegedly criminalized ulemas one by one, including Rizieq, who is currently in Saudi Arabia and thus unable to fulfill the police’s request that he appear for questioning last week in relation to his pornography case.
Should Komnas HAM find evidence for the criminalization of Rizieq and the ulemas, Pigai said they would take the investigation to the next stage, though he did not say if the commission would be able to stop the police’s criminal investigations.
Komnas HAM has certainly raised a few eyebrows with this move, specifically in regards to Rizieq. Should Rizieq be able to hide behind a human rights defense and not answer for his numerous criminal charges (for which there seem to be clear evidence for his wrongdoings)? If that’s the case, should anyone be able to cite human rights protections against any criminal charge?
And what of Rizieq’s rival Ahok, whom the former’s group, FPI, have been attacking because they believe that non-Muslims are forbidden from becoming a leader in Indonesia? (Last time we checked, it’s everybody’s constitutional right to run for public office in Indonesia, regardless of their religion.) Where was Komnas HAM when Ahok, while exercising his right to free speech, was criminalized for blasphemy against Islam?
Where is Komnas HAM today, as thousands of hardline Muslims are protesting to the Supreme Court, demanding that Ahok be jailed for blasphemy, even though judges should be able to make their decisions free from outside influences?
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