Jakarta, Indonesia - Three Indonesian Christian women jailed for inviting Muslim children to church events have appealed against a court decision imprisoning each of them for three years, a court official said on Monday.
The district court in West Java’s Indramayu regency ruled earlier this month that Rebekka Zakaria, Ety Pangesti and Ratna Bangun had persuaded minors to choose another religion without parental consent, a sensitive issue in the world’s most populous Muslim country.
Muslih, an Indramayu court official, said the women had filed an appeal last week and the case would be heard by an appellate court in Bandung, the capital of West Java province.
The defence refused to confirm the legal move, but their lawyer had earlier argued his clients did not conduct any proselytising as none of the Muslim children had changed their religion.
Local media and church groups have said that since 2003 the women had involved some Muslim children in a Sunday school they ran in Pangesti’s house, and took those minors along with some parents to an Easter event in Jakarta last March.
Their actions irked local Muslim clerics who complained to authorities and prompted prosecutors to bring the women to court.
Indramayu is a poor regency 160 kilometres (100 miles) east of Jakarta, with 99 percent of its population following Islam.
The three women were charged under the 2002 Child Protection Law banning the use of deception or fabrication or persuasion so that a child changes their religion without free will or parental consent. Those found guilty face a maximum five years’ jail.
About 85 percent of secular Indonesia’s 220 million people are Muslims. Most are moderate, but some Islamic hardline groups and conservative clerics are outspoken.