The man known best for instigating the blasphemy case against former Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama will likely have to serve time in prison as well after the Supreme Court (MA) last week denied his appeal to overturn his conviction for spreading hate speech, and he may even have to serve more than his original 18 month sentence.
Buni Yani was convicted and sentenced by the Bandung District Court in November 2017 but has yet to begin serving his sentence as his appeal process was still ongoing. But with the MA, the highest court in the country, denying his appeal, it appears Buni Yani is out of legal options to keep himself out of prison.
As reported by Viva, MA Spokesman Suhadi said the court denied Buni Yani’s appeal on Nov 22 and that the judges would also revise his original sentence.
“In the case of a ‘rejection [of appeal] with revision’ that usually means the sentence will be amended… it could be increased, decreased — it could change,” Suhadi said yesterday, adding that he does not yet know the court’s final decision on the sentence revision.
Buni Yani was previously arrested for posting an infamously misleading edited video clip which, as blatantly counterintuitive as it may seem, kick-started former Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama’s blasphemy trial and eventual two-year imprisonment.
The Jakarta Metro Police charged Buni Yani with inciting religious hatred in November 2016 in violation of Indonesia’s draconian Information and Electronic Transactions (UU ITE) law, just a week after Ahok had been named a suspect for blasphemy.
According to the police, Buni Yani’s fault was that his transcript of Ahok’s speech was missing some key words so that it seemed that Ahok said the Quran itself deceives people, whereas in actuality Ahok said that people use the Quran to deceive others in the full version of his speech. He was found guilty.
While he was appealing his sentence, Buni Yani was not shy about actively campaigning for President Joko Widodo’s 2019 rival, Gerindra Chairman Prabowo Subianto, who he hopes will be able to keep him out of prison if elected.
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