REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The defendant on the blasphemy case, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok), read out a memorandum of objection or exception on the first trial of the case, held on Tuesday (13/12), at the temporary office of North Jakarta District Court in Gajah Mada Street, Central Jakarta. 

The session began at 9:00 am with the Public Prosecutor Ali Mukartono indicted Ahok with Article 156 of the Criminal Code on blasphemy. He argued that the inactive Governor of Jakarta Special Region had intentionally used the Quran Surah al Maidah verse 51 in delivering his speech at Kepulauan Seribu. It was an official visit, but Ahok who participated in Jakarta gubernatorial election 2017 mentioned the verse and connected it with the election rivalry.

After hearing the charges, Ahok read out an exception to the judge. He insisted that his sentences about the Holy Quran was not aimed at interpreting it. He said he had no intention to insult Islam. "What I mentioned in Seribu Islands, obviously, is not intended to interpret the letter of Al Maidah," said Ahok.

According to Ahok, the sentences addressed to the politicians who often utilize the verse of Quran for political purposes. He added the story when he was participated in the Bangka Belitung (Babel) election in 2007. At that time, there were leaflets quoting the same verse and he said it has provoked people not to choose him as a governor because he is a Protestant. 

His political opponents, Ahok remarked, could not compete fairly. They used issues related to his ethnicity, religion, race, and inter-group (SARA) background by spreading the leaflets consisting surah al Maidah verse 51 in the hope that the majority Muslims in Babel would not choose him. “Those words remarks the politicians who take advantage of Surah al Maidah and used it incorrectly,” said Ahok.

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