Jakarta court tries man for blasphemy on virginity

JAKARTA (JP): The trial began yesterday of a man charged with blasphemy over his public statement that most girls in South Sulawesi's Tana Toraja region have lost their virginity.

The man, identified only as KM, 44, had said that "96 percent of Tana Torajan female school students have lost their virginity to tourists" and "those girls mostly are not Moslems", prosecutors Mohammad Yaman and Tony Montana said in the Central Jakarta District Court.

The prosecutors said the statement, published in Pelita daily on April 27 and April 28, was an expression of hostility and a disgrace to the predominantly Christian Tana Torajans.

"The statement was slanderous because it was based merely on the defendant's own, or other people's opinions which were scientifically questionable," the prosecutors said.

KM, who is a haj, made the controversial statement at a seminar on AIDS which was jointly organized by Muhammadiyah, an influential Moslem socio-educational organization, the University of Indonesia and the Jakarta Islamic Hospital.

The statement caused an uproar and massive protests from the Tana Torajan community.

The prosecutors charged the defendant under Article 156(a) of the Criminal Code on religious blasphemy. It carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.

In their rebuttal, KM's defense lawyers argued that their client did not say a single word that could be considered blasphemous to a religion in Indonesia.

"That the statement was blasphemous to Christians is the prosecutors' own conclusion," lawyer Patrialis, who led the defense team, said.

He said the prosecutors' indictment is inaccurate because it did not cite completely the article of the criminal code under which the defendant was charged.

"We urge the court to dismiss the case in the name of the law," he said.

Patrialis said that the prosecutors should have mentioned more specifically which part of Article 156(a) of the Criminal Code they used to prosecute his client.

The trial was adjourned to Sept. 25. (26)