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Indonesian housewives arrested over election video: police
BANDUNG, Indonesia, Feb 25, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Three Indonesian housewives
have been arrested over an online video that claimed President Joko Widodo
would ban prayer and make gay marriage legal in the Muslim majority country
if re-elected, police said Monday.
Widodo has fended off accusations over his Muslim credentials for years,
claims that have been revived ahead of April presidential elections.
Indonesia has also been battling a wave of fake news and misinformation
campaigns online in the lead up to the polls.
The video, shared thousands of times online, showed two women in hijab
headscarves telling an old man that Widodo would end the call to prayer,
which is performed five times a day by many in the world’s most populous
Muslim country.
He would also force women to remove their hijab in public and legalise gay
marriage, which is widely opposed in Indonesia, the video suggested.
Widodo, first elected in 2014, is a practising Muslim and has never
publicly pushed for any of the measures mentioned in the video.
Three women “linked” to the video were arrested by East Java provincial
police on Sunday over claims they were spreading misinformation.
But police did not elaborate on their role.
“This is a preventive measure because this (video) could potentially
trigger anxiety and conflict in our society,” local police spokesman
Trunoyudho Wisnu Andiko told a press conference Monday.
If convicted, the trio could face up to six years in prison for spreading
hate speech and violating a sweeping electronic information law.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1417 hrs