Jakarta – Alfian Tanjung, a Muslim preacher and former lecturer charged with spreading hate speech for calling the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) members "communists" on Twitter, was acquitted of all charges, as he had only "copied and pasted" information from dubious sources.
The Central Jakarta District Court ruled on Wednesday that what Alfian had done was not a crime.
Alfian had tweeted on his account last year that "85 percent of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle members are [members] of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI)."
The PKI was disbanded after being accused of being responsible for the putsch against president Sukarno and the killing of six Army generals in 1965.
The judge argued that Alfian had just copied an unverified statement from a news portal that apparently was not registered with the Press Council.
"The defendant just copied and pasted the information on his social media account," he said, as quoted by tribunnews.com.
Alfian was arrested in September last year, after a PDIP member reported him to the police for allegedly spreading hate speech against the party. (fac/ahw)