Indonesia TikToker Sentenced To Prison Over Pork Video

A lady from Indonesia was given a two-year prison term for breaking the country’s blasphemy laws after posting a video on the social media platform TikTok in which she prayed in Islam before consuming pork meat.

Lina Lutfiawati, 33, was found guilty of “inciting hatred” against religious people and organizations by a court in Palembang, Sumatra. She must also pay a fine of $16,245 (£13,155). If she doesn’t make the payment, her sentence could be prolonged by three months.

The largest Muslim-majority country in the world, Indonesia, strongly forbids the consumption of pork.

According to the court document, Lina Lutfiawati, who took the Indian name Lina Mukherjee because she adores Bollywood films, identifies as a Muslim.

More than two million TikTok users follow the lifestyle influencer, who also owns a company in India. In a video she published in March, she said: “Bismillah” (Arabic for “in the name of God”) before consuming crispy hog skin.

She was visiting Bali at the time, a popular tourist destination in Indonesia with a Hindu majority in contrast to the rest of the nation. According to Lutfiawati, she tasted pork out of curiosity.

Lutfiawati expressed surprise at the verdict to reporters after the trial. She said on the neighborhood news channel MetroTV, “I know that I am wrong, but I did not expect this punishment.”

She was accused of “knowingly eating pork skin as a Muslim” by another Indonesian after the video received millions of views and harsh criticism.

Lutfiawati was charged by police in May for spreading hate speech, which they claimed was motivated by animosity toward people based on their race, religion, or origin.

The video was deemed to be blasphemous by numerous religious organizations around the nation. The foremost Muslim ecclesiastical group in Indonesia, the Ulema Council, was among them.

Her imprisonment has received mixed reviews on Indonesian social media sites thus far, with some applauding the judge and others criticizing her conduct as blasphemous. Others have attacked Lutfiawati’s prison term, pointing out that the sentences handed down in cases of corruption are sometimes far lighter.

Critics claim that Indonesia’s stringent blasphemy laws have been utilized to damage the Southeast Asian nation’s long-standing image of tolerance and diversity.

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, commonly known as Ahok, a former governor of Jakarta, was sentenced to almost two years in prison in 2017 for remarks that were alleged to have offended Islam.