March 12, 2025
JAKARTA – Medan District Court in North Sumatra has sentenced Ratu Thalisa, a trans influencer who is widely known as Ratu Entok, to two years and 10 months in prison for blasphemy.
Presiding Judge Achmad Ukayat said that Ratu was found guilty of violating Article 45A of the 2024 Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law.
“The court has sentenced the defendant to two years in prison, along with a fine of Rp 100 million [US$ 6,000], which will be converted into an additional three months’ imprisonment if she fails to pay,” Achmad announced on Monday.
Ratu’s sentence was lighter than the prosecutor’s demand of four years and six months in prison, along with a fine of Rp 100 million, which would be converted into an additional six months’ imprisonment if she failed to pay.
Judge Achmad explained that the aggravating factors in Ratu’s case included the fact that her actions had “disrupted public order” and could potentially “undermine religious harmony” within the community.
Meanwhile, the mitigating factors included her admission of guilt, her apology for the actions and the fact that she had no prior criminal record.
After the trial, Ratu stated that she would take seven days to decide whether to appeal her sentence, while the prosecutors immediately announced their intention to seek an appeal.
In their indictment, prosecutors stated that Ratu committed blasphemy during a TikTok livestream on her channel, @ratuentokglowskincare, which has around 442,000 followers, on Oct. 2 of last year.
During the livestream, she responded to a viewer who had asked her to cut her hair to be more like a man’s, by holding up a picture of Jesus Christ and saying, “You [Jesus] should not look like a woman. You should cut your hair so that you will look like his father,” referring to the viewer’s father.
On Oct. 4, five Christian groups filed a report with the North Sumatra Police, accusing Ratu of hate speech and blasphemy, she was arrested four days later.
Amnesty International Indonesia’s executive director Usman Hamid described Ratu’s conviction as a “shocking attack” on her freedom of expression, urging authorities to refrain from using the ITE Law to punish individuals for comments made on social media.
“While Indonesia should prohibit the advocacy of religious hatred that incites discrimination, hostility or violence, Ratu Thalisa’s speech does not meet that threshold,” he said in a statement.
“The authorities must overturn Ratu’s conviction and ensure her immediate and unconditional release.”
Usman further stated that Ratu’s sentence highlights the increasingly arbitrary and repressive application of Indonesia’s ITE Law, which violates freedom of expression.
Amnesty International Indonesia’s records show that 121 people have been convicted of blasphemy in the country since 2018.
Meanwhile, between 2019 and 2024, Amnesty documented at least 560 individuals charged with alleged violations of the ITE Law for exercising their freedom of expression, including offenses like defamation and hate speech, of whom 421 were convicted.
In September 2023, a Muslim woman was sentenced to two years in prison for blaspheming Islam after posting a TikTok video in which she recited an Islamic prayer before eating pork, an act forbidden in Islam.
Last year, a TikToker was detained for blasphemy after posting a video quiz asking children, “What kind of animals can read the Quran?”
Usman stated that Indonesia’s blasphemy laws violate several of the country’s international human rights commitments, including its obligations to respect and protect the rights to freedom of expression, and freedom of religion or belief.