More arrests made as Indonesia awaits blasphemy probe

By Ainur Rohmah

TUBAN, Indonesia (AA) - Five students have been arrested for allegedly attacking police personnel after they were identified from images taken during disturbances that followed a mass demonstration against a governor seen to insult the Quran.

Tuesday's arrests comes as the country awaits a live television show on the allegations made against Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, due to be broadcast Nov. 15 or 16.

Jakarta police spokesperson Commissioner Awi Setiyono said Tuesday that the five are members of an Islamic organization involved in Friday's protest and they were arrested early Tuesday in various places in the capital.

"They are all members of the Islamic Students Association (HMI)," Setiyono told Anadolu Agency by phone.

The men are being held on charges of committing violent affray on Friday when trouble broke out outside the presidential palace after what had been a peaceful protest against Ahok by around 100,000 Muslims.

The governor -- a Christian -- is accused of publicly insulting Islam, however he says he was calling for people not to be “deceived” by those using a Quranic verse, Al Maidah: Chapter 51, not that the verse itself was insulting.

Setiyono said Tuesday that one of those held was a 23-year-old man caught on a reporter's camera trying to hit police with a bamboo pole.

"He attacked police after his friends did," said Setiyono. "They were provoked after someone read over loudspeakers that they should not be afraid [of the police] and move forward."

On Tuesday, national police spokesperson Commissioner Martinus Sitompul told Anadolu Agency that police would carry out President Joko Widodo's order to perform a transparent case screening on national television next week.

"The case is planned for Tuesday or Wednesday," said Sitompul.

The live legal broadcast is the first of its kind in Indonesia, and organized to answer any questions the public may have, while dealing with any accusations of bias.

Until now, police have questioned Ahok twice and asked for testimony from at least 25 people, some of them from the Indonesian Ulema Council, along with experts on the Koran, criminal law and linguistics.

In the past two days Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has attempted to calm tensions by visiting the country’s two largest Muslim organizations.

On Monday, he visited the office of the country's biggest, Nahdlatul Ulama, and on Tuesday it was the turn of Muhammadiyah.

Widodo has said that the legal process will be fair, applied strictly and transparently and he would make no attempt to intervene to protect Ahok -- his deputy when he was Jakarta governor.

"I'd like to emphasize that I am not going to protect Basuki Tjahaya Purnama as this is now a legal matter," Widodo was quoted as saying by detik.com.