Ahok Gets Sentence Cut on Independence Day, Eligible for Release in January
Jakarta. Former Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama received a two-month sentence reduction for good behavior, as part of Indonesia's Independence Day celebrations on Friday (17/08).
The sentence reduction will make him eligible for release in January, an official said.
The government traditionally grants sentence reductions to prisoners on major holidays, including Independence Day.
Ahok is among 102,976 inmates in prisons across the country who received sentence reductions of between one and six months for good behavior on Independence Day this year, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights said in a statement on Thursday night.
"He gets a two-month sentence reduction and will be released by January 2019," Ade Kusmanto, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry's Directorate General of Corrections, told the Jakarta Globe via WhatsApp on Friday.
The North Jakarta District Court sentenced Ahok to two years in prison in May last year after he was found guilty of blasphemy.
More than 2,200 inmates have secured early release from prison following the sentence cuts, the ministry added.
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