Principal Petitioners Aisyah Sharifa and Zico Leonard Djagardo Simanjuntak explaining the main points of revision in the follow-up hearing of the judicial review of the Law on Prevention of Abuse of Religion and/or Blasphemy on Thursday (4/10) in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

The Constitutional Court held the second hearing to review Law No. 1/PNPS/1965 on the Prevention of Abuse of Religion and/or Blasphemy (Blasphemy Law) on Thursday (4/10) in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. In the petition revision hearing of case No. 76/PUU-XVI/2018, the Petitioners presented the revision points, including adding photographs of the religious activities and public speaking that the Petitioners had participated in, as well as strengthening the rationale of the petition. 

According to Aisyah, there are three previous petitions filed in 2009, 2012, and 2017 related to the a quo law. However, the problems reviewed in the a quo petition are not on those previous petitions. "The Petitioners in this case questioned the substance of the a quo law in relation to the fundamentals of the religions. This is contradictory to Article 29 paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution," Aisyah explained before the hearing led by Constitutional Justice Wahiduddin Adams accompanied by Constitutional Justices Suhartoyo and Arief Hidayat. 

Leonard Djagardo Simanjuntak (Petitioner I) and Aisyah Sharifa (Petitioner II), who are law students, claimed that Article 4 of the Blasphemy Law potentially harms their constitutional rights. They explained that they often spoke at various seminars, discussion forums, and conferences. In these activities, the Petitioners considered that they should keep to their own faith.

The a quo article, Zico added, has made it possible for anyone who adheres to a particular religion to say that another religion is wrong, whereas every religion is basically different and believed to be right by its followers. Therefore, in the petitum, the Petitioners requested that the Panel of Constitutional Justices declare Article 4 of Law No. 1/PNPS/1965 on the Prevention of Abuse of Religion and/or Blasphemy in contradiction with the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. In addition, they requested that the article declared not to have binding legal force with all legal consequences. (Sri Pujianti/LA/Yuniar Widiastuti)