Medan – A panel of judges at the Medan District Court sentenced Faisal Abdi Lubis, 27, to 18 months in prison and fined him Rp 20 million (US$1,379) for insulting the Batak tribe on social media.

He was found guilty of violating the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law.

"[The panel of judges] sentences [the defendant] to one year and six month in prison and Rp 20 million in fines," presiding judge Saryana said during the trial hearing on Monday evening. The sentence is lower than the two years sought by the prosecutors.

Faisal said he would not challenge the sentence. "I accept it," he added. He also apologized to the Batak tribe

Daniel Pardede, who reported Faisal for insulting the tribe on social media, said he was satisfied with the decision and had forgiven the defendant.

Lubis' posts concerned the defeat of gubernatorial candidate pair Djarot Saiful Hidayat and Sihar Sitorus. "Batak people, eat that s***!" read one of the postings. Djarot is Javanese while Sihar is Batak.

Edy Rahmayadi, a retired army general and a Malay of the royal Deli house, and his running mate, Musa Rajekshah, won the North Sumatra election in June.

Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/12/20/man-convicted-for-insulting-batak-tribe.html