JAKARTA, Indonesia—January 23, 2019— A polarizing Christian politician whose campaign comments ignited protests that were the largest in Muslim-majority Indonesia in years was freed Thursday after serving nearly two years in prison for blasphemy.

Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, the former governor of Jakarta, left a paramilitary police prison outside the capital early Thursday with members of his family, said his spokesman Sakti Budiono, avoiding waiting supporters and media.

In 2016, Purnama made campaign-trail comments that hardliners seized on as blasphemy, triggering protests that brought hundreds of thousands of white-robed Muslims to the center of Jakarta.

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