Ahok Exhausted After Being Questioned More Than Eight Hours

Jakarta. Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama was questioned for more than eight hours in the blasphemy case against him on Tuesday (22/11).

The governor appeared exhausted as he left the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta at around 5.30 p.m.

"Ahok was questioned for eight-and-a-half hours. We followed the procedures. There were 27 questions and all were answered," Ahok's lawyer Sirra Prayuna told reporters.

Most of the questions had already been answered earlier, when Ahok was summoned as a witness, but the investigators needed to repeat them, since the governor has been named a suspect in the case, Sirra said.

Ahok is accused of blasphemy for referring to a Koranic verse in a speech while campaigning on Pramuka Island in Jakarta's Thousand Islands district in September. In his speech, he purportedly said nobody should manipulate verses from the Koran for political gain.