Originally published in Worthy News
Concerns remained on Monday over Christian leader Dedi Saputra after a court in Indonesia’s Aceh Province sentenced the convert from Islam to two years in prison for an online video deemed insulting to Islam’s prophet Muhammad.
Saputra, 31, an Aceh native who became a Christian and was serving as a pastor in West Kalimantan Province, has been detained since his arrest in February following complaints over videos posted on social media platform TikTok.
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Christians said Saputra referred to Muhammad’s multiple wives in the footage, which was viewed nearly two million times before being removed and triggered widespread anger in Aceh, Indonesia’s only province where strict Sharia, or Islamic, law is formally enforced.
Several Islamic organizations reportedly complained to police, accusing Saputra of insulting Muhammad and offending Muslims. Authorities subsequently detained him on February 18.
On July 10, a three-judge panel at the Banda Aceh District Court found Saputra guilty of blasphemy and disseminating hate speech through social media, sentencing him to two years imprisonment. The time he has already spent in detention is to be deducted from his sentence.
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Prosecution wants four years
The sentence was half the four-year prison term sought by prosecutors. Following the verdict, prosecutors were reportedly considering whether to appeal, raising concerns among Christians that Saputra could still face a longer prison term.
Presiding Judge Fauzi said Saputra had distributed the material through TikTok in October 2025 and that his actions had caused unrest in predominantly Muslim Aceh.
The court ruled that Saputra had violated Article 301(1) of Indonesia’s new Criminal Code, in conjunction with legislation adjusting criminal penalties. The revised code took effect on January 2 and retained controversial provisions concerning blasphemy and religious expression.
However, supporters of Saputra said testimony during the proceedings raised questions about whether his comments constituted hate speech.
Makyun Subuki, a linguistics expert from Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta, reportedly testified that Saputra’s statements did not meet the criteria for hostility, hatred or incitement against Aceh or Islam.
Disputing hate speech
Saputra made the remarks while responding to social media users who had criticised him over his conversion from Islam to Christianity, according to sources familiar with the case.
The trial drew additional controversy following reports that a prosecutor made an inflammatory statement in court suggesting that the blood of an apostate could lawfully be shed. Worthy News could not independently verify the the alleged remark.
International Christian Concern (ICC), a US-based advocacy group monitoring persecution of Christians, expressed alarm about the case, saying Saputra’s arrest and detention had “continued to spark prolonged public debate in Indonesia.”
ICC noted that the court convicted Saputra despite testimony from a linguistic expert who concluded that his statements did not meet the criteria for hostility, hatred or incitement against Aceh or Islam.
Voice of the Martyrs Canada (VOMC), another advocacy group supporting persecuted Christians, told Worthy News that Saputra remains imprisoned but expressed hope that he could eventually receive an early release.
Converts worship secretly
Despite the pressure, Muslims continue to turn to faith in Christ in Aceh and other provinces of the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, according to a leader of an underground church movement of former Muslims.
He told Worthy News that even people outwardly dressed as Muslims are secretly expressing their Christian faith, “even in mosques where they pray to Christ Jesus in their heart.”
Christian rights activists have expressed concern about Indonesia’s revised Criminal Code, warning that provisions dealing with blasphemy, apostasy and religious expression could be broadly applied, particularly to material distributed through social media.
Indonesia officially recognizes several religions and constitutionally guarantees religious freedom, but Christians and other minorities have faced periodic blasphemy prosecutions and restrictions on worship.
VOMC urged Christians to pray that Saputra would receive “help, encouragement, protection and strength” while imprisoned and that efforts to extend his prison term would not succeed.
Indonesia’s Christian minority
Though overwhelmingly Muslim, Indonesia has one of Asia’s largest Christian populations.
Government civil-registration figures for the second half of 2025 showed about 21.2 million Protestants and other non-Catholic Christians and nearly 8.9 million Catholics.
Together, they represent roughly 30.1 million Christians, or about 10.4% of Indonesia’s population of more than 288 million people.
Saputra’s case has therefore become another test of how Indonesia will apply its new Criminal Code under President Prabowo Subianto while balancing sensitivities with constitutional protections for freedom of religion and expression.
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