From: Asia Pacific News

Jakarta – Indonesia drew international criticism on Thursday as a court handed down light sentences to 12 men convicted in connection with the killing of three followers of the Ahmadiyya Muslim sect.

The court in the western Java city of Serang sentenced the defendants to between three and six months for the February attack, in which dozens of Muslim radicals raided a house and killed three members of the minority sect.

Human Rights Watch said the verdict would send 'the chilling message that attacks on minorities like the Ahmadiyya will be treated lightly by the legal system.'

It was the deadliest in a series of attacks against members of the sect, that has been branded heretical by many Muslims because it teaches that its founder, Mirza Gulam Ahmad, was the final Islamic prophet instead of Mohammed.

The United States, the European Union and New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned the verdicts, which found the defendants guilty on a range of assault-related charges, but stopped short of murder.

‘We are disappointed by the disproportionately light sentences,’ the US embassy in Jakarta said in a statement.

The Ahmadiyya movement, founded in 1889 in India, has an estimated 200,000 followers in Indonesia. (Ahmadiyya Nasir Mosque, Indonesia)

‘The United States encourages Indonesia to defend its tradition of tolerance for all religions, a tradition praised by President Obama in his November 2010 visit to Jakarta,’ it said.

The EU mission in Jakarta stressed the need for ‘dissuasive penalties’ for violence against minorities as a deterrent.

‘The EU Delegation shares the strong concerns voiced by many Indonesians that sentences imposed for violent crimes against religious or other minorities should always be commensurate with the gravity of the crimes committed,’ it said.

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