Australian charged with spitting in face of imam faces potential jail term
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Bali, Indonesia: An Australian man faces more than a year in prison after being charged in the Indonesian city of Bandung for spitting on the face of an imam at a mosque.
Brenton Craig Abbas Abdullah McArthur, 47, was arrested at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Friday night, hours after the incident in the West Java capital.
Brenton Craig Abbas Abdullah McArthur, from his Facebook page in 2015.Credit: Facebook
He has been accused of spitting on the face of Imam M Basri Anwar at the al-Muhajir Mosque at about 6am on Friday. He had been staying nearby in a guesthouse and had reportedly been annoyed by the sound of the early morning call to prayer from the mosque.
McArthur has been held since his arrest at Bandung police station and has now been charged over his alleged conduct at the mosque, Indonesian news outlet Kumparan reported on Sunday.
Bandung police said the Australian had been charged under Articles 315 and 335 of the Indonesian penal code.
Article 315 of the Indonesian penal code refers to defamation committed with deliberate intent while Article 335 covers offensive treatment.
“The articles we applied for are articles 335 and 315 from the penal code. It is about unpleasant treatment and humiliation,” Bandung police chief, senior commissioner Budi Sartono, reportedly said.
“The penalty is one year and two months but we will see later how the process goes.”
Police said McArthur had not been trying to flee authorities, but already had a ticket booked to return to Australia that day.
On his social media profile the Perth resident describes himself as a computer game developer, writer and teacher with interests in philosophy, ethics, human goodness and electronic engineering. He has posted photos of his travels in Indonesia, including trips to mosques, and of himself practising Wushu martial arts.
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