Hardline Indonesian cleric Habib Razieq Shihab released from prison
- The polarising figure was released on parole just over a year after being found guilty of breaching coronavirus curbs and spreading fake news
- He had been sentenced to four years in prison, but fulfilled the necessary ‘administrative and substantive requirements to obtain remission’
Rizieq was found guilty of breaching coronavirus curbs when he held and attended several mass events at the height of the pandemic, including his daughter’s wedding.
Rika Aprianti, an official at the country’s prisons department, said in a written statement on Wednesday that Rizieq had been detained since December 2020 and was therefore eligible for parole.
His release was based on the fact that he had fulfilled the necessary “administrative and substantive requirements to obtain remission”, she said.
In the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, Rizieq has been a polarising political figure.
His organisation, the FPI, was banned in 2020 after the government declared that it posed a threat to the country’s national ideology, but Rizieq remains popular among some Islamic conservatives.