ICC Note: Ryan Morgan, International Christian Concern’s Regional Manager for Southeast Asia, said, “Ms. Rusgiani’s sentencing is a perfect example of a justice system being used to hypocritically and blatantly discriminate against a member of a minority faith. Last year in other parts of Indonesia Islamic radicals shouted insults and hurled bags of urine, rocks, and dirt into crowds of Christians without any fear of arrest, yet Ms. Rusgiani’s single critical comment is enough to result in a 420 day prison sentence? The double standard being applied here is staggering. This sends a message to the world that Indonesia’s legal system is not about protecting religious plurality, as the government would claim, but defending the petty grievances of whichever faith happens to hold the majority, and therefore the most influence, in any given area. Religious intolerance has been growing at an alarming pace across Indonesia, and targeting minority Christians expressing their opinion is not the solution to curbing this growth.”
11/22/2013 Indonesia (Jakarta Globe) – Christian woman residing in the Hindu-majority island of Bali was sentenced to 14-months in prison for calling Hindu offerings “dirty and disgusting,” the Supreme Court recently announced.
“The defendant Rusgiani, who is also known as Yohana, has been proven validly and convincingly guilty of purposefully and publicly expressing herself in a way to ignite conflict and defame a certain religion in Indonesia,” A.A. Ketut Anom Wirakanta said during the trial at the Denpasar District Court as written in the court ruling. “[The judges] have sentenced the defendant to one year and two months in prison.”
The ruling was published by the Supreme Court earlier this month, even though the ruling was delivered on May 14 in the Denpasar District Court. Rusgiani has been detained in Bali since January.
The punishment was lighter than the two years imprisonment demanded by prosecutors.
The incident occurred on Aug. 25, 2012. Rusgiani, a Christian who had only been living Bali for three months at the time, arrived at the house of Ni Nengah Suliati in Jimbaran to pray for Suliati’s mother-in-law, who was ill at the time.
As she left the house, Rusigiani reportedly saw Canang Sari laying in the street. The daily offerings — which generally include rice, flowers, bananas and betel leaf — are placed in the streets of Bali as a daily thank the Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa (the “All-In-One God”).
“God cannot enter this house because there is canang here,” Rusigiani said. “Canang is disgusting and dirty. My God is rich, He doesn’t need offerings.”
After receiving a report from Suliati, Bali police named her a suspect and charged her with Article 156 of the Criminal Code, which states that “a person who expresses feelings of hostility, hatred or contempt against one or more groups of the Indonesian population shall be punished with a maximum imprisonment of four years or a maximum fine of Rp 300 [$0.03].”
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