MEILIANA

Jailed for complaint about a noisy mosque

the mosque to stop prayers. That night, a mob attacked Meiliana’s house and then burned and vandalised 14 local Buddhist temples. Police arrested 19 rioters, who later received jail terms of one to four months. A local policeman, Brigadier Kuntoro, reported Meiliana for blasphemy. She was arrested on May 30, 2018. Medan District Court on August 21 sentenced her to 18 months in jail. The presiding judge was Wahyu Prasetyo Wibowo. Medan High Court in October rejected Meiliana’s appeal. Vice President Jusuf Kalla has in the past complained that some Indonesian mosques are too noisy, but police and judges have not tried to jail him for blasphemy. Meiliana (44), an ethnic Chinese woman and Buddhist from Tanjung Balai in North Sumatra, on July 22, 2016, complained to her neighbour, Kasini, that the call-to-prayer from loudspeakers at a nearby mosque was too noisy. On July 29, 2016, a group of men from the mosque visited Meiliana’s house and she confirmed she thought the volume was too loud. Provocative false messages then spread on social media, claiming Meiliana had thrown rocks at