Indonesia has passed a controversial law punishing sex outside marriage with up to a year in jail – for citizens and tourists alike.
Unmarried couples will also be banned from living together and doing so will be punishable by six months in jail.
Similarly, adultery will be a punishable offence but charges must be based on police reports lodged by the accused’s spouse, parents or children.
The promotion of contraception and religious blasphemy will be illegal too, according to the new code.
Additionally, the law will make abortion a crime, but it adds exceptions for women who have life-threatening conditions and for rape.
This is provided that the fetus is less than 12 weeks old and is in line with the 2004 Medical Practice Law. The code also preserves the death penalty, restores a ban on insulting the president and vice president, and expands on the Blasphemy Law.
Insults to a sitting president must be reported by the president and can lead to up to three years in jail.
The National Commission on Human Rights and other groups have called for Indonesia to abolish capital punishment, as dozens of other countries have done.
The death penalty will be imposed alternatively with a probationary period. It means that a judge cannot immediately impose a death sentence.
If the convict behaves well within a period of 10 years, the death penalty will be changed to life imprisonment or 20 years imprisonment.
Under the new code, the existing Blasphemy Law is also expanded, maintaining a five-year prison term for deviations from the central tenets of Indonesia’s six recognised religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism.
Meanwhile, citizens could face a ten-year sentence for associating with organisations that follow Marxist-Leninist ideology and a four-year sentence for spreading communism.
