Indonesian prisons banned tough group leader over COVID offenses and Coronavirus pandemic News

Rizieq Shihab was convicted including child marriages because thousands of people attended.

An Indonesian court has jailed a hardline religious leader Rizieq Shihab for eight months and fined him 20 million Indonesian dollars ($ 1,400) for giving sermons and attracting thousands of other followers for attracting tens of thousands of followers who broke the country’s coronavirus rules since his return last year. -imposed exile.

The imprisonment comes a few months after Indonesia prohibited Rizieq’s Islamic Defense Front (FPI) was shot dead by police as a result of a gun.

A court in East Jakarta on Thursday found that Rizieq had violated Indonesia’s health quarantine law by asking supporters to attend sermons to celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad and attend his daughter’s wedding. All of this attracted thousands of people to a country that has suffered the worst outbreak of COVID-19 in Southeast Asia.

“The accused has been found guilty of violating health protocols,” Judge Suparman Nyompa said at the hearing. Rizieqi was also fined for an incident at an Islamic boarding school in West Java.

A live replay of the court session showed Rizieq dressed in a white tunic, turban and face mask, squeezing the beads of prayer.

It’s behind him verdict in December and the court said his prison sentence will be reduced to three months for reporting the time he has already served.

Five other members of the FPI were sentenced to eight months in prison for organizing mass rallies.

About 3,000 police officers were deployed to guard the verdict before the verdict, but there was not much protest from his supporters. Local media said they had arrested nearly two dozen people briefly.

Rizieq returned to Indonesia in November after spending three years in Saudi Arabia, where he fled on charges of pornography allegations and insulting the ideology of the state. Both charges were later dropped.

Thousands of his followers flocked to the airport to celebrate his return and then joined the crowded events in the days that followed, with rules limiting the size of gatherings.

His legal group claimed that the cases were politically motivated, as part of an effort to silence a Muslim leader with numerous followers and big voices.

Shihab, who has served a prison sentence in the past for assaulting members of the FPI in an interfaith rally in 2008, denied the latest charges and said he could appeal.

He was arrested shortly afterwards Jakarta police shot dead six FPI followers on the highway authorities described it as an act of self-defense – a claim discussed by the group.

The FPI has had a political impact in Indonesia in recent years, and was among the toughest religious groups to perform rallies in 2016 accused of blasphemy against ousting the then-Christian governor of Jakarta. Mass protests against the governor created a great deal of anxiety within the government of President Games Widodo about a perceived threat.

Indonesia banned a tough team last year.