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Indonesian Parliament criminalizes sex outside marriage
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Steph Deschamps / December 6, 2022
Indonesia’s parliament has approved a law criminalizing sex outside of marriage, denounced as a setback to freedoms and a slide towards fundamentalism in the world’s most populous Muslim country.
This reform of the penal code, which dates back to the Dutch colonial era, was adopted by a majority of deputies. It punishes extramarital sexual relations as well as the cohabitation of unmarried couples.
According to the text consulted by AFP, illegal cohabitation will be punishable by six months’ imprisonment, and sexual relations outside marriage by one year’s imprisonment.
“We have done our best to take into account the important issues and the different opinions that have been debated,” Justice Minister Yasonna Laoly told parliament.
“However, it is time for us to take a historic decision on amending the penal code, and leave behind the colonial penal code that we inherited” when the country gained independence in 1949, he added.
A spokesperson for the committee that drafted the bill at the Ministry of Justice, Albert Aries, said the reform will protect the institution of marriage.
He emphasized that premarital and extramarital sexual acts can only be reported by spouses, parents or children, which effectively limits the scope of the law.
But critics of the new law have denounced it as an attack on freedom of morals.
Human rights groups say the new amendments underscore a growing shift toward fundamentalism in a country long hailed for its religious tolerance and where secularism is enshrined in the constitution.
The new rules could also have a major impact on the LGBTQ community in Indonesia, where same-sex marriage is not allowed.
“We are going backwards…repressive laws should have been abolished. But the bill shows that the arguments of foreign academics are true, that our democracy is indisputably in decline,” Usman Hamid, director of Amnesty International Indonesia, told AFP.
About 100 people protesting against the bill had unfurled a yellow banner in Jakarta on Monday that read: “Reject the adoption of the revised penal code”.
Some of them put flower petals on the banner as they do for funerals. According to Abdul Ghofar, an activist with the Indonesian environmental group WALHI, these symbolic acts reflected the public’s “grief” at the impending passage of the revision.
Another demonstration to reject the new law was planned for Tuesday in front of the parliament building.
The law, which has yet to be signed by the president, will be applicable in three years.
Bambang Wuryanto, the head of the parliamentary committee that oversaw deliberations on the text, acknowledged that “it is a human product and therefore it will never be perfect. But he urged critics to “file a legal appeal with the constitutional court” instead of protesting.
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Sylvie Claire / July 21, 2024
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on the phone on Friday, with the former US president claiming to have promised the Ukrainian president to “end the war” between Ukraine and Russia should he return to the White House. “As your next president of the United States, I will bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives,” said the Republican presidential candidate.
Donald Trump frequently claims that he would be able to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine very quickly on his return to power, but never provides details of how he would achieve this. Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the phone call, during which he congratulated the billionaire on his official nomination the previous day as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate.
Donald Trump’s frequent praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as his criticism of other Nato countries, is causing concern among Ukraine’s Western allies. In February, he threatened that, if he returned to the White House, he would no longer guarantee the protection of Atlantic Alliance countries against Russia if they did not pay their share, even claiming that he would “encourage” Moscow to attack them. The former American president also used his power over the Republicans to block a $61 billion military aid package for Kiev for months in Congress, which was finally adopted at the end of April.
In his posting on X on Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky said he had “agreed with President Trump to discuss, in a face-to-face meeting, the steps to be taken towards a just and lasting peace” in Ukraine.
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Former Ukrainian far-right MP murdered in Lviv: “All leads are being investigated, including Russia”
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Steph Deschamps / July 21, 2024
In a message on Telegram, the Ukrainian National Police said she had succumbed to her injuries in hospital after being the target of an assassination attempt.
“I always say that no place is safe in Ukraine,” lamented Lviv mayor Andriï Sadovy, denouncing a ‘heinous murder’ and offering his condolences to the victim’s relatives.
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office, the attack took place on Friday evening, at around 7.30pm, when an unidentified individual fired at Irina Farion, seriously wounding her in the head. “All surveillance cameras are being checked, witnesses are being interviewed and several districts (of Lviv) are being examined. All leads are being investigated, including the one leading to Russia”, reacted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on X on Saturday.
Interior Minister Igor Klimenko told a briefing in Lviv on Friday evening that the suspected killer could have been lurking around Irina Farion’s home for several days.
According to him, investigators are currently focusing on the possibility of a murder motivated by a “personal grudge” linked to the victim’s activities, but are not ruling out a “commissioned assassination” either.
The 60-year-old language teacher and linguist was a member of parliament for the nationalist Svoboda party between 2012 and 2014.
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Sylvie Claire / July 18, 2024
At least six people died in a shopping mall fire on Wednesday in Zigong, southwest China, and thirty others were rescued, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said. “Rescue teams are continuing their search,” the media outlet added.
Images broadcast by the channel and others shared on social networks show thick black smoke rising from a building overlooking a shopping street in this city 1,600 kilometers from the capital Beijing, in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
The fire broke out in the early evening in a shopping mall at the foot of a 14-storey building, CCTV reported.
“At 8:20 pm, the fire was extinguished and 17 people were rescued. Others are still trapped, and rescue operations are continuing”, said the station in an initial report on the situation.
Fires and other fatal accidents are frequent in China, due to the sometimes lax application of safety standards. In January, at least 39 people perished in a store fire in central China. According to the authorities, the fire started in the basement of a store when workers “broke the rules” during construction work. At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for lessons to be learned from the disaster to prevent further tragedies. The same month, a fire in a residential building claimed at least 15 lives.
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