BANDUNG: Three Indonesian housewives have been arrested over an online video that claimed President Joko Widodo would ban prayer and make gay marriage legal in the Muslim majority country if re-elected, police said Monday.
Widodo has fended off accusations over his Muslim credentials for years, claims that have been revived ahead of April presidential elections.
Indonesia has also been battling a wave of fake news and misinformation campaigns online in the lead up to the polls.
The video, shared thousands of times online, showed two women in hijab headscarves telling an old man that Widodo would end the call to prayer, which is performed five times a day by many in the world’s most populous Muslim country.
He would also force women to remove their hijab in public and legalize gay marriage, which is widely opposed in Indonesia, the video suggested.
Widodo, first elected in 2014, is a practicing Muslim and has never publicly pushed for any of the measures mentioned in the video.
Three women “linked” to the video were arrested by East Java provincial police on Sunday over claims they were spreading misinformation.
But police did not elaborate on their role.
“This is a preventive measure because this (video) could potentially trigger anxiety and conflict in our society,” local police spokesman Trunoyudho Wisnu Andiko told a press conference Monday.
If convicted, the trio could face up to six years in prison for spreading hate speech and violating a sweeping electronic information law.
Indonesian housewives arrested over anti-Widodo online video
Indonesian housewives arrested over anti-Widodo online video
- President Joko Widodo has fended off accusations over his Muslim credentials for years
- Indonesia has also been battling a wave of fake news and misinformation campaigns online in the lead up to the polls
Airlines hike ticket prices as war against Iran propels fuel costs
- Conflict deals double blow to Indian airlines already hit by Pakistan airspace ban
CANBERRA, NEW DELHI: Australia’s Qantas Airways, Scandinavia’s SAS and Air New Zealand announced airfare hikes on Tuesday, blaming an abrupt spike in the cost of fuel caused by the Middle East conflict.
Jet fuel prices, which were around $85 to $90 per barrel before US-Israeli strikes on Iran, have soared to between $150 and $200 per barrel in recent days, New Zealand’s flag carrier said as it suspended its financial outlook for 2026 due to uncertainty over the conflict. The war, which disrupted shipping via the world’s most vital oil export route, has sent oil prices surging, upending global travel, pushing airline tickets on some routes sky-high, and sparking fears of a deep travel slump that could lead to widespread grounding of planes.
FASTFACT
Flight disruptions due to the Middle East conflict add to problems at IndiGo whose CEO Pieter Elbers stepped down on Tuesday.
“Increases of this magnitude make it necessary to react in order to maintain stable and reliable operations,” an SAS spokesperson said in a statement, adding it had implemented a “temporary price adjustment.”
The largest Scandinavian airline said last year it had temporarily adjusted its fuel hedging policy due to uncertain market conditions and that it had no fuel consumption hedged for the following 12 months. Several Asian and European airlines, including Lufthansa and Ryanair, have oil hedging in place, securing a part of their fuel supplies at fixed prices. Finnair, which had hedged over 80 percent of its first quarter fuel purchases, warned, however, that even the availability of fuel could be at risk if the conflict dragged on.
Qantas said in addition to increasing international fares, it was exploring redeploying capacity to Europe as airlines and passengers seek to evade disruptions in the Middle East
Airspace restrictions in the Middle East have dealt another blow to Indian airlines, which count the region as a corridor for flights to Europe and the US since Pakistan banned Indian carriers from its airspace last year.
As war in the Middle East forces flight rescheduling and re-routing, Indian airlines have limited options because they can’t fly over Pakistan either.
The country’s biggest international carriers Air India and IndiGo did not operate 64 percent of their 1,230 scheduled flights to the Middle East, Europe and North America in the last 10 days, Cirium data shows.
“It is a double whammy for Indian airlines which fly international routes,” said Amit Mittal, an independent aviation expert.
Pakistan has banned Indian carriers from its airspace since last April following military tensions between the two neighbors.
