An Australian man will be sentenced to more than a year of imprisonment for allegedly spitting on an imam’s face at a mosque in Indonesia.
Brenton Craig Abbas Abdullah McArthur has been facing the charge of assaulting the imam in a mosque in Bandung. The incident was recorded on a CCTV camera.
The video footage went viral and showed a man, who was sporting a baseball cap, entering the mosque and speaking to the imam before spitting on his face. The imam is seen fleeing away as the Australian man casually walks back.
Indonesian police stated that McArthur was living at a hotel which was near the mosque. The police tracked the Australian man using his passport and arrested him at Soekarno-Hatta airport where he was trying to board a flight bound to Australia.
“We immediately ask(ed) immigration to stop him and cancel him from leaving the country,” stated Bandung’s police chief Budi Sartono.
“We immediately pick(ed) him up at the airport and (took) him to the Bandung Police Station for interrogation,” he added.
As per local media, McArthur’s resident visa had expired and he was accompanied by Australian embassy officials accompanied to the police station.
McArthur was charged with articles 315 and 335 of the criminal code, which regulate unpleasant insults and acts. The man may face a maximum imprisonment of 14 months if convicted by the court, stated the Indonesian news website Kumparan.
McArthur, taking over his social media account, denied committing any wrong acts and claimed that he was only a victim.
“Stop crying all your racist tears,” he stated on Instagram. “I am a Muslim and this is just racist, threatening a bule and laughing being a coward,” he further wrote.
‘Bule’ is a word used in the Indonesian language to describe foreigners, especially those of European descent.
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Speaking to the Indonesian news website, Imam Basri Anwar, said that McArthur was “disturbed” by the Qur’an’s recitation over a loudspeaker. “When it’s Clean Friday, there’s a recitation of the Qur’an,” he stated. “I think he feels disturbed,” he added.
McArthur’s job has been listed as an English teacher and game developer, and his home town has been mentioned as Gosnells which is in Perth, Western Australia.
A spokesperson from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said that it was willing to provide consular assistance to the Australian man after he was detained for spitting on the imam in Indonesia. “Due to privacy obligations, we are unable to provide further information,” she stated.
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