After receiving thousands of negative comments, Mr. Zgraggen took down the posts. But the videos were screen-recorded and widely reposted to other popular accounts, drawing criticism from Balinese residents who found his actions disrespectful. After the posts went viral, Mr. Zgraggen re-uploaded the video with the caption “they want smoke,” slang for a fight or argument, according to the indictment. That post, too, received widespread criticism.
Then, prosecutors said, Mr. Zgraggen reached out to a senator in the Indonesian Regional Representative Council to apologize.
When he arrived at the senator’s residence, he was arrested by the Bali police’s cybercrime unit and charged with disseminating hate speech based on religion through electronic information, the police said in a news release. Mr. Zgraggen’s trial began in June, and on Aug. 20 he was sentenced to a year in detention.
The office for the chief district court judge in Denpasar, Bali’s capital, and the public affairs division of the Indonesian National Police did not respond to requests for comment.