East Java Police have charged a man who kicked religious offerings in Mount Semeru, Lumajang District, with blasphemy.

“The man (identified as HF) is already a suspect,” the public relations head of East Java Police, Chief Commissioner Gatot Repli Handoko, said in a press release issued in Surabaya on Friday.

HF was arrested in Bantul District, Yogyakarta on Thursday evening (January 13, 2022) at 10:30 p.m. local time, he informed.

He has been charged under Articles 156 and 158 of the Penal Code (KUHP), and the case is under examination, he added.

Meanwhile, Director of East Java Police’s General Criminal Investigation Agency, Chief Commissioner Totok Suharyanto, said that the suspect told police that he owned the mobile phone that was used to record the incident.

HF also uploaded the video by himself on social media, he added.

“He asked a friend to record his action. The video was uploaded to a WhatsApp group,” Suharyanto said.

The suspect told police that he acted out of “spontaneity” to demonstrate his personal beliefs, he informed. Police confiscated the video footage and his cell phone.

HF expressed his apologies to all Indonesian people, but he did not state the motive for his actions, he said.

“All Indonesian society that I love, if what we did in the video offended you, we deeply apologize,” HF said, according to Suharyanto.

Earlier, a video of a man wearing a black vest kicking at and throwing away offerings in the Mount Semeru area had gone viral on social media.

The Council of Prajaniti Hindu Indonesia, East Java, reported the incident to the Integrated Police Service Center of East Java Police on Monday (January 10, 2022).

Source: Antara News