Indonesia (International Christian Concern) — After serving more than four years behind bars, an elderly Christian man has been released from prison in Indonesia.

International Christian Concern (ICC) field staff have learned that Apollinaris Darmawan was freed from the Kebon Waru Prison in November 2024. His release comes about a year earlier than expected after he received “several remissions” to his original sentence. This is the second time Darmawan has been imprisoned for his faith. 

Police arrested Darmawan in late 2020 after someone accused him of insulting the Prophet Muhammad and Islam on social media. The Bandung District Court sentenced Darmawan to a maximum of five years for blasphemy. The court also fined him nearly 800 million rupiahs (about $50,000) for “disseminating information aimed at causing hatred or dissension on individuals and certain groups of community based on ethnic groups, religions, races, and inter-groups.”  

In 2017, he was sentenced to four years in prison for insulting Islam. He was freed in March 2020 to help prevent and control the spread of the coronavirus.   

During his most recent imprisonment, Darmawan remained steadfast in his faith. Supported by dozens of letters from ICC’s Prison Letter Writing Campaign and several visits from ICC staff, he stayed spiritually and physically strong, walking nearly two miles inside the prison grounds daily, and relying on prayer to sustain him. 

Despite the years he spent in prison, Darmawan, a former Muslim who converted to Catholicism, still fervently believes he was correct to challenge the teachings of Islam. 

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