Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa on Friday defended the country’s judicial system after a court sentenced Muslim radicals to a few months in jail for killing members of a minority sect.
The sentences handed down last month to 12 defendants over a deadly lynch mob attack on members of the Ahmadiyah community in February shocked human rights groups and drew criticism from the United States and the European Union.
Ujang, a defendant in the Feb.6 attack on Ahmadiyah followers in Cikeusik, jokes with supporters as codefendants greet and receive encouragement from visitors during their trial. (Jakarta Globe)
But in his first public response to the outrage, Natalegawa defended the independence of Indonesia’s courts and said the mainly Muslim archipelago was not the only country to suffer from religious intolerance.
“There is an obvious delineation between the executive, the judiciary and legislative branches,” he said in response to a reporter’s question.
The Cambridge-educated minister said “heinous acts” were being committed all over the world due to religious intolerance, but he did not address concerns that light sentences for hate crimes only encourage more killings.
Categories: Indonesia, Law and Religion
Shame on Indonesia… SBY government is secretly supporting Radicals. SBY has in his cabinet PKS which are essentially Taliban. The Obama ministration needs to be extremly critical of SBY and his lack to address these issues.
What has SBY done when the FPI said they would topple SBY? why did he not put 10,000 of them in jail and act more like a dictaotor in which the entire world is teling him to do…(SBY seems to have a long learning ability)
Basically SBY government has now insulted Islam by letting radicals hijack it…
What did SBY do about the NII? this topic is never brought up anymore!