Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama is currently in the midst of the legal fight of his life, with his blasphemy trial set to begin later this week. Now, on top of that, he has to deal with a civil lawsuit from the secretary general of the hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), Habib Novel, in which he is seeking Rp 204 million in damages to cover the costs of his own investigation into Ahok’s alleged blasphemy against the Quran.
Habiburokhman, a Gerindra Party politician who has become closely aligned with FPI and the anti-Ahok movement (he was the one who offered to jump off of Monas if Teman Ahok collected 1 million KTP ID cards – which they did and he obviously didn’t), explained Novel’s civil lawsuit to the media, asserting that Novel had suffered material and nonmaterial losses due to Ahok’s blasphemy case.
According to Habiburokhman, Novel, who was one of many who reported Ahok to the police for the alleged insult against Surah al-Maidah: 51, spent a great deal of his own money to finance a fact-finding team to investigate Ahok’s blasphemy, rent a boat for them to go to the Thousand Islands (where the alleged blasphemy took place) and interview witnesses there. Novel is also claiming that he was forced to leave his job as a lawyer in able to finance the investigation.
“His total losses reached Rp 204 million, plus the non-material losses are immeasurable,” Habiburokhman said as quoted by Tempo.
The Gerindra politician said he hoped the court would ensure that Ahok paid for all of the damages to Novel and also force him to buy advertisements in mass media to apologize to the public (despite the fact that there are literally thousands of stories in the media about Ahok apologizing numerous times already).
If the civil suit goes to trial, it would not be the first time Novel has been in a courtroom because of Ahok. In April 2015, he was sentenced to seven months in jail for inciting a riot at an anti-Ahok rally led by FPI in which several police officers were injured.
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