A Christian woman charged with blasphemy has escaped jail for taking a dog into a mosque, the latest religious case to draw headlines in Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation.
The case of Suzethe Margareth, 52, sparked outrage last summer, when a video emerged showing her in a mosque in Bogor, near the capital, Jakarta, wearing shoes and letting her dog run loose.
Dogs are considered impure in Islam and wearing shoes is forbidden in a mosque.
A Bogor court on Wednesday ruled that Margareth was guilty, but decided not to impose a prison term because she has paranoid schizophrenia.
Prosecutors had demanded a nine-month jail term.
Margareth testified that she went into the mosque because she was being chased and heard voices in her head saying that her husband was getting married there.
Her lawyer welcomed the decision, saying that her condition was clear from the way she spoke.
However, mosque representative Ruslan Suhady slammed the mental health defense.
People with mental illnesses “usually roam on roads naked. This woman wore neat clothes,” he said.
The dog reportedly died soon after being hit by a car.
It was the latest in a string of controversial blasphemy cases in Indonesia, where rights groups have long campaigned against laws they have said are frequently misused to target religious minorities.
Blasphemy convictions can result in up to five years in prison.
A plan by Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million has the backing of almost half the country, according to a poll before an expected vote next year. The party, which has long campaigned against immigration, argues that too-fast population growth is overwhelming housing, transport and public services. The level of support comes despite the government urging voters to reject it, warning that strict curbs would damage the economy and prosperity, as Swiss companies depend on foreign workers. The poll by newspaper group Tamedia/20 Minuten and released yesterday showed that 48 percent of the population plan to vote
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
RELAXED: After talks on Ukraine and trade, the French president met with students while his wife visited pandas, after the pair parted ways with their Chinese counterparts French President Emmanuel Macron concluded his fourth state visit to China yesterday in Chengdu, striking a more relaxed note after tough discussions on Ukraine and trade with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) a day earlier. Far from the imposing Great Hall of the People in Beijing where the two leaders held talks, Xi and China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan (彭麗媛), showed Macron and his wife Brigitte around the centuries-old Dujiangyan Dam, a World Heritage Site set against the mountainous landscape of Sichuan Province. Macron was told through an interpreter about the ancient irrigation system, which dates back to the third century
RSS