Editor of 'Blasphemy Video' Sentenced to One and Half Years
Jakarta. Buni Yani, the man accused of uploading to social media a heavily edited video of a speech by Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, which resulted in a blasphemy charge and conviction of the former Jakarta governor, was sentenced to one and a half years in prison on Tuesday (14/11).
A panel of judges at the Bandung District Court in West Java, led by M. Saptono, found Buni guilty of violating the 2011 Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE) Law.
"The defendant has violated the law by deliberately changing, adding, cutting, transmitting, damaging, deleting, moving, hiding electronic information and or an electronic document owned by a person or public," Saptono said, as quoted by state news agency Antara.
The judge added that Buni's action had caused inter-religious tensions and the defendant did not show remorse during the trial.
The judges said Buni had also changed the duration of Ahok's speech, taking parts of it out of the original context. The original video lasted 1 hour 48 minutes and 33 seconds, while the clip Buni posted on his Facebook account was only 30 seconds long.
The sentence was lighter than the prison term of two years demanded by prosecutors, as the judges said Buni had no past convictions and has a family to support.
Buni's lawyer plans to appeal the verdict.
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