[Straits Times] AN INDONESIAN court on Wednesday sentenced a US retiree to five months in jail for blasphemy for pulling the plug on a mosque's loudspeaker during a prayer reading.
The August 22 incident during the Mohammedan holy month of Ramadan resulted in retired Caliphornian engineer Gregory Luke, 64, needing a police escort from his home on Lombok island as a mob tore it to pieces around him.
'He was found guilty of committing blasphemy, carrying out an act of violence and hampering people in Kute village from doing their religious activities,' chief judge Suhartoyo told a court in Praya, Lombok.
Luke had previously denied pulling the plug, but in a brief comment on Wednesday said he was 'satisfied' with the judges' ruling.
The verdict was two months lighter than the jail term sought by prosecutors a day earlier. The Indonesian criminal code stipulates that an act of blasphemy carries a maximum five-year jail term.
Setting out mitigating circumstances, the judge said: 'The defendant has never committed a crime before, acted politely during the trial and expressed regret for his act. He also participated in promoting tourism here.'
Luke, who runs a guesthouse for tourists on the islands, will get his freedom back in mid-February 2011. |