crowds mass at jail where jakarta governor held

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Thousands of Indonesians gathered outside Cipinang prison in East Jakarta on Tuesday evening to express solidarity with a man who, just hours earlier, had been serving as their governor. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, widely known by the nickname Ahok, was earlier sentenced by a court and taken to the prison — but not for the common crime of corruption, which is rife in Indonesia. Instead, his crime was blasphemy.

Purnama, Jakarta’s first Christian governor in decades, had suggested late last year that Jakarta's imams were misusing Koranic verses to discriminate against Christian candidates. The remarks created a furor in Muslim-majority Indonesia, prompting huge rallies by Islamists opposed to Purnama and leading, eventually, to his lopsided electoral defeat on April 19.

After Purnama's election loss, his supporters took to social media to push the idea that he should instead become the governor of Hindu-majority Bali. But that idea, never entirely serious, became fantasy this week after the court ruled against him. The five-judge panel sentenced Purnama, who is ethnic Chinese, to two years in prison.