AMERICAN EXPERT TO TESTIFY AT CONSTITUTIONAL COURT SESSION

Jakarta, Feb 6 (ANTARA) - The views of American religious freedom expert Prof W Cole Durham Jr are to be heard at a Constitutional Court (MK) session on a civil society petition for a review of Indonesia's blasphemy law, MK Chairman Moh Mahfud MD said.

"Professor Cole Durham will present his views at a court session by teleconference from the United States," Mahfud said here on Thursday.

The MK would on February 10 hold another session to hear the arguments of representatives of seven non-governmental organizations that had asked for a review of Law No 1/PNPS/1965 on Abuse and/or Defilement of Religions.

Durham had been requested to give his expert opinion at the MK session by the petitioners' counsels.

According to information gleaned from Wikipedia, the encyclopedia in cyber space, Cole Durham is a professor of law at Brigham Young University specializing in international law on freedom of religion.

He authored a number of books on religious freedom, one of which, titled "Law and Religious-freedom in Post-Communist Europe", he wrote together with Italian law expert Silvio Ferrari.

A graduate from Harvard University, Durham has been director of Brigham Young University's Center for Law and Religious Studies since 2000.

He is also a visiting lecturer at a number of universities in Germany and Austria, and an adviser to the Peruvian government on religious freedom matters.

Durham once made a public statement urging Bulgaria to shelve a law he considered to be in violation of religious freedom. .

The seven NGOs that had requested Durham's expert testimony at the MK hearing are the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation (YLBHI), Imparsial, the Community Advocacy Studies Institute (ELSAM), the Indonesian Legal Aid Union (PBHI), the Association of Human Rights and Democracy Study Centers (Perkumpulan Pusat Studi HAM dan Demokrasi), the Setara Community Association (Perkumpulan Masyarakat Setara) , and Desantara Foundation (Yayasan Desantara).

They claim that a number of articles in Law No 1/PNPS/1965 had opened the door for the pursuance of discriminative policies in the religious field, and were thus against the principles of tolerance, diversity, open-mindedness and limiting as well as running counter to freedom of religion as guaranteed in Indonesia's 1945 Constitution.

The agenda of the MK session on February 10 was to be fully dedicated to the testimonies of experts proposed by the petitioners, the government and other parties involved.