Sex outside of marriage is already illegal in Indonesia

The code would also retain the death penalty

On Tuesday, Indonesia’s parliament passed a long-awaited but controversial penal code that criminalizes extramarital sex for both citizens and foreigners, including tourists, the Associated Press reports.

After ratification, the new penal code must be signed by the president, according to Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights Edward Hiariei. The penal code will not take effect immediately.

He said the new law “has a lot of implementing provisions that need to be worked out, so it’s impossible (to do it) in one year,” but it would take a maximum of three years to transition from the old penal code to the new one.

A copy of the revised penal code obtained by The Associated Press includes several revised articles that make sex outside marriage punishable by a year in prison and cohabitation by six months, but adultery charges must be based on police reports filed by spouse, parents or children.

Under the newly adopted penal code, the promotion of contraception and religious blasphemy are punishable, as well as insulting the sitting president and vice president, state institutions and national ideology. Insults to the president must be self-reported and can lead to three years in prison.

Hiariei said the government had provided “the strictest possible explanation that distinguishes between insult and criticism”.

The code makes abortion a criminal offence, but adds exceptions for women with life-threatening medical conditions and for becoming pregnant after rape, provided the fetus is less than 12 weeks old, in accordance with the procedure set out in the Medical Practice Act 2004.

Human rights groups criticized some of the changes as too broad or vague and warned that rushing them into the new criminal code could make normal activities punishable and threaten freedom of expression and the right to privacy.

However, some advocates hailed it as a victory for the country’s LGBT minority. Lawmakers, in heated debate, eventually agreed to repeal an article proposed by Islamic groups that would have made same-sex sex illegal.

The code would also preserve the death penalty in the criminal justice system despite calls by the National Human Rights Commission and other groups to abolish the death penalty, as dozens of other countries have done.

The penal code has been debated for decades as lawmakers in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation try to adapt their local culture and norms to the penal code inherited from the Dutch colonial administration.

A previous bill was poised for passage in 2019, but President Joko Widodo urged lawmakers to postpone a vote on the bill amid mounting public criticism that led to nationwide protests as tens of thousands of people took to the streets. Opponents argued that the legislative process lacked transparency and contained articles that discriminated against minorities.

A parliamentary working group finalized the bill in November and MPs approved it unanimously on Tuesday.

The new code states that the death penalty is imposed as an alternative to probation. This means that a judge cannot immediately impose a death sentence. If the convict behaves well within 10 years, then the death penalty is commuted to life imprisonment or 20 years imprisonment.

The code also expands the existing blasphemy law and provides for five years in prison for deviations from the basic tenets of Indonesia’s six recognized religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Citizens could receive a 10-year sentence under the bill for associating with organizations that follow Marxist-Leninist ideology and a four-year sentence for spreading communism.

Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday that laws punishing criticism of public leaders contravene international law, and the fact that some forms of expression are considered offensive is not enough to justify restrictions or punishments.

“The danger of repressive laws is not that they will be widely enforced, but that they provide an opportunity for selective enforcement,” said Andreas Harsono, a senior Indonesia researcher at the group.

Many hotels, including in tourist areas such as Bali and the capital Jakarta, risk losing their visitors, he added.

“These laws allow the police to extort bribes, allow officials to jail political enemies, for example with the blasphemy law,” Harsono said.

Photo by Trung Nguyen: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-newly-wed-couple-2959183/