Indonesia: American jailed for blasphemy

AN INDONESIAN court has sentenced an American businessman to five months in jail for marching into a mosque during Islamic prayers and ripping cables from the loud speakers.

Gregory Lloyd Luke, 64, was found guilty of blasphemy.

An official at the Praya District Court on Lombok island said he was given a relatively lenient sentence because he was apologetic and polite during the hearings.

Luke, himself a Muslim, has a lodge for tourists on Kuta beach.

He stormed into the nearby mosque on 26 August and disabled the speakers, which he said were too noisy.