A court in Indonesia has sentenced a trans woman to almost three years in prison for an online comment on Jesus Christ’s haircut.
The district court said her comments could disrupt “public order” and “religious harmony” as the judges sentenced her to two years and 10 months in prison and ordered her to pay 100,000,000 IDR (£4,711) in fine for the offence.
Ratu Thalisa, a Muslim woman with over 442,000 TikTok followers, was found guilty by a court in Medan city, Sumatra, on Monday for spreading hatred under the online hate-speech law.
Ms Thalisa, known online as Ratu Entok, was livestreaming on 2 October 2024 on TikTok, when a viewer asked her to cut her hair like a man. She responded by holding up a picture of Jesus Christ and addressing it: “You should not look like a woman. You should cut your hair so that you will look like his father”.
She was arrested in October after five Christian groups filed a complaint to the police for blasphemy.
Ms Thalisa was charged and indicted with blasphemy and hate speech against a particular religion.
At least 421 people were charged and convicted with alleged violations under the law while exercising their freedom of expression between 2019 and 2024, Amnesty International said.
Social media influencers have been targeted for blasphemy, including a Muslim woman, who was jailed for two years in September 2023 after posting a TikTok video of her saying an Islamic prayer before eating pork.
