Indonesian lawmakers passed a sweeping new criminal code on Tuesday that criminalizes sex outside of marriage, as part of a series of changes that critics say threaten human rights and freedom in this Southeast Asian country.
The new law also prohibits premarital cohabitation, apostasy, and introduces penalties for offending the president or expressing views that run counter to secular national ideology.
Blasphemy, which is already in the Indonesian books, is now punishable by up to five years in prison.
Human rights groups and critics have warned that the new law would “disproportionately affect women” and further restrict human rights and freedoms in the Muslim-majority country.
An earlier draft of the code was set to pass in 2019 but sparked nationwide protests.
Researcher Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch Indonesia warned the law could be exploited.
“The danger of oppressive laws is not that they will be widely applied, but that they provide avenues for selective enforcement,” he said.
Harsono called the new laws “a setback to religious freedom already dwindling in Indonesia,” warning that “infidels could be prosecuted and imprisoned.”
This is an evolving story. More to come.
