Blasphemy Trial Postponed, Prosecutors Not Ready to Deliver Sentence Demand
Jakarta. Prosecutors said they were not ready to deliver their sentence demand against Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama during the eighteenth session of his blasphemy trial on Tuesday (11/04). The session has now been postponed to Apr. 20.
Prosecutor Ali Mukartono told the court his team has not finished typing their sentence demand against the defendant due to technical issues.
"We apologize for the delay and beg the court for more time to prepare the sentence demand as we cannot deliver it today," Ali said during the hearing at a makeshift courtroom in the Ministry of Agriculture headquarters in Ragunan, South Jakarta.
Presiding judge Dwiarso Budi Santiarto offered the prosecutors an extension until 12 p.m. to type up the sentence demand but the prosecutors said they would prefer to deliver it next week.
The hearing has been rescheduled for Apr. 20, a day after the Jakarta election runoff in which Ahok is going head-to-head against former education minister Anies Baswedan.
"We accept the new schedule from the judges. We're not going to gain anything from this postponement," Ahok’s lawyer Humprey Djemat said.
He added that Ahok will now have only five days to prepare his plea statement due to the postponement.
Last week, Jakarta Police had requested the postponement of Tuesday’s blasphemy hearing due to security concerns ahead of the April 19 runoff election.
The request was ignored by the North Jakarta District Court.
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