Indonesian Ex-Muslim Christian YouTuber was tortured and sentenced to ten years in prison.

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According to International Christian Concern (ICC), an Indonesian Christian YouTuber was sentenced to ten years in jail on April 6 for a viral YouTube video that reportedly insulted Muslims throughout Indonesia.

Muhammad Kace, a former Muslim cleric who converted to Christianity in 2014, is 56 years old. Following his conversion, he began posting videos on YouTube condemning his previous beliefs. He was jailed in Bali last August after reportedly insulting the prophet Muhammad in a sermon video.

On April 6, the justices of Ciamis District Court in West Java province agreed with prosecutors to sentence him to ten years in prison for his crimes. Thousands of Muslims gathered outside the court to support Kace's harsher prosecution.

During his arrest, Kace was reportedly assaulted and tortured by a police official named Napoleon Bonaparte, who was also jailed in the same prison owing to a corruption case. Kace was forced to eat his faeces by Bonaparte. After his mistreatment was made public, the authorities implicated five individuals in his alleged assault and torture.

According to UCA News, Kace's lawyer, Martin Lucas Simanjuntak, stated that the penalty was severe and that his client will appeal.

"In other such cases, sentences have been lighter," he remarked. "We will appeal the verdict, or at the very least the sentence imposed on him."

While Christians are not uncommon victims of Indonesia's stringent blasphemy laws, Muhammad Yahya Waloni, a Christian-turned-Muslim cleric who was arrested last August for insulting Christianity, was sentenced to only five months in jail. It is self-evident that the inconsistent norm incorporated in Indonesia's legal system is self-evident.

“The Indonesian government should promptly repeal the blasphemy law. Both Christian preacher Mohammad Kace and Muslim cleric Yahya Waloni need not to stay a single night in prison because of the toxic law.” Human Rights Watch Indonesia's senior researcher, Andreas Harsono, told the ICC

“The right to speak one’s mind is essential and must be protected. This sort of treatment and punishment under Indonesian law is a shameful reality,” Timothy Carothers, ICC's Southeast Asia Advocacy Manager, told. “As long as Indonesia continues to enforce religious harmony through regulation and prosecution, it will continue to achieve the opposite.”

News by: Enhance let Added on: 13-Apr-2022

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