Two men detained by a vigilante group in Jakarta, Indonesia on suspicion of being gay. | Photo: Warta Kota
A politician on the committee to overhaul Indonesia’s criminal code said the amendments to make homosexuality illegal will remain.
A Criminal Code (KUHP) bill working committee has been working for months on a range of amendments to the KUHP.
One of the most controversial proposed amendments was the criminalization of homosexual activity. The proposed changes come amid an escalating crackdown on the LGBTI community and increasing influence of conservative Islamic groups.
Arsul Sani of the United Development Party sit on the KUHP working committee.
He said the article which would criminalized homosexual ‘indecent conduct’ has remained in the most recent revision of the proposed KUHP.
‘Instead of deleting the article, we will revise it so that people won’t see it as discriminatory,’ Arsul told tempo.co.
The death penalty
Other proposed amendments that will remain in the revised draft KUHP include; making it illegal to defame the president, premarital sex and cohabitation, promoting contraception, corruption laws and introducing the death sentence.
The working committee must agree on all the proposed amendments before the draft bill goes to the House of Representatives for a vote. The House had hoped to vote on the draft bill by 17 August after several delays.
‘We will finish all of these articles before August 17,’ Arsul said.
The KUHP draft bill working committee will meet again today (30 May) to further discuss the changes.
