The Medan District Court in North Sumatra has sentenced a police officer to 16 months in prison for shredding and dumping copies of the Quran into the gutter.

The officer, Tommy Daniel Patar Hutabarat, was found guilty of blasphemy as stipulated under Article 156 of the Criminal Code.

"We sentenced the defendant to one year and four months in prison," presiding judge Sibarulina Ginting said on Tuesday.

Tommy was recorded by a CCTV camera when he stole copies of the Quran from a mosque at Adam Malik Hospital in Medan in May.

After he went in to use the bathroom, Tommy was seen taking four copies of the Quran and taking them back into the restroom, where shredded two copies and dumped them in the gutter.

He left the other two copies on top of a concrete hedge beside it.

Tommy then left the mosque and went to his car to retrieve his bags and accompany his wife who was going into labor.

His motives remain unclear, but he claimed that he had heard voices in his head telling him to destroy the holy books.

However, the judges agreed that the defendant did not suffer from a mental illness because he still worked at the Police's Medical Department. (ris/ahw)