The Indonesian Tictoker was sentenced to almost three years in prison after allegedly ‘talked’ to Jesus’ picture on his phone and told him to rise.
Thalisa’s war, a Muslim transgender woman with more than 442,000 followers of Tictok, was on Live Stream -Ii she responded to the comment that told her to cut her hair to look more like a man.
On Monday, the Court in Medan, Sumatra, declared Thalis guilty of spreading hatred for the controversial Hate Internet Speech Law and sentenced it to two years and 10 months in prison.
The court said her comments could disrupt “public order” and “religious harmony” in society and accused her of committing blasphemy.
The court ruling came after several Christian groups filed police complaints against Mrs. Thalis for blasphemy.
The penalty was convicted of human rights groups, including Amnesty International, who described it as a “shocking attack on freedom of expression of Thalis war” and invited to be abolished.
“The Indonesian authorities should not use the Law on Electronic Information and Transactions (EIT) in the country to punish people for comments on social networks,” the executive director Amnesty Indonesia USman Hamid said in a statement.
“Although Indonesia should forbid the advocacy of religious hatred that represents an incentive for discrimination, hostility or violence, the speech act of war of Thalis does not reach that threshold.”
Mr. Hamid called on the Indonesian authorities to cancel Mrs. Thalis’s belief and ensure her direct release from custody.
He also invited them to abolish or execute significant audits to what he described as “problematic provisions” in the Law of Eit – namely, those who criminalize alleged immorality, defamation and hate speech.
For the first time, presented in 2008 and changed in 2016 to address the internet defamation, the EIT law was designed to protect individuals’ rights in the internet spaces.
However, groups for the right, press groups and legal experts, who have long provoked concerns about the potential threat of a law for freedom of expression.
At least 560 people were charged with alleged violations of the EIT Law, while executing their freedom of expression between 2019 and 2024, and 421 was convicted, according to Amnesty International.
Those who were charged with criminal offenses of defamation and hate speech included several influences on social media.
In September 2023. The Muslim woman was sentenced to two years in prison For the blasphemy of Islam, after posting a viral video of Tictok where she told the Islamic phrase before eating pork.
In 2024, another tiktocker was detained for blasphemy after publishing a quiz asking children what kind of animals they could read the Qur’an, according to Amnesty International.
Indonesia is the home of many religious minorities, including Buddhists, Christians and Hindus. But the vast majority of Indonesians are Muslims – and most of the cases of people found in violating the EIT law are usually related to religious minorities allegedly insulting Islam.
The case of Mrs. Thalis, where a Muslim woman was accused of calling for hate speech against Christianity, is less common.
Prosecutors had previously sought to receive a fine of more than four years and immediately appealed the verdict on Monday. Mrs. Thalisa received seven days to appeal.
