Indonesia’s 2-0 loss to Thailand in the 2nd leg of the AFF Suzuki Cup Finals on Saturday night was an absolute heartbreaker for many fans in Indonesia. The loss allegedly upset one fan in Batam so much that he took to Facebook to write a post about it that was so incendiary that he has been arrested by the police for blasphemy.
According to Batam Police Chief Helmy Santika, the suspect, identified as SP, posted the Facebook message on Saturday night and was arrested on Sunday morning at about 3 am after police received multiple reports from angered citizens about his post.
“He was disappointed by the defeat of the national team and then he posted that. That post was related to blasphemy,” Helmy said on Sunday as quoted by Tribunnews.
Local media in Batam reported that SP wrote in his FB post that the Indonesian football team wouldn’t have lost the finals if they didn’t perform the salat, which is the Islamic prayer, while in Thailand.
Police said that SP posted the message to his personal Facebook page, but that it really angered citizens when it was posted to a Facebook group called “Wajah Batam” (Face of Batam) which has over 200,000 members. It is not clear if SP posted the message to the group himself or if another group member shared it.
Either way, the post soon drew numerous scathing comments and caused some members of the group to report SP to the police. Police said they investigated SP’s account, found his address and arrested him immediately, which Helmy said was done to protect SP from something “undesirable” from happening to him.
Police are charging SP with violating Article 28 of Indonesia’s Law on Information and Electronic Transactions (UU ITE) which criminalizes online speech that . He could receive up to four years in jail for his crime.
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