Jewel Topsfield, Jakarta – An Indonesian man gasped in horror after learning he and another man had been sentenced to 85 lashes for gay sex in the first conviction for homosexuality in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province.
The punishment – imposed under a new sharia-inspired code implemented in the province two years ago – is five lashes more than demanded by the prosecution.
Responding to the sentencing of two gay men to 85 lashes each for consensual same-sex sexual relations, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Josef Benedict, said:
Banda Aceh – A sharia court in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province has sentenced two gay men to public caning, further undermining the country's moderate image after a Christian politician was imprisoned for blasphemy.
The court said the men, aged 20 and 23, would each be subjected to 85 lashes for having sexual relations.
Sharia prosecutors in Indonesia's Aceh province say two men on trial for gay sex should each be punished with 80 lashes, in another blow to the country's moderate image after a top Christian official was imprisoned for blasphemy.
Hotli Simanjuntak and Severianus Endi, Banda Aceh/Pontianak – After making strongly worded remarks against radicals propagating intolerance in his province, West Kalimantan Governor Cornelis was less than welcome by a group of conservative Muslims in Aceh.
Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, Jakarta – It has been 18 years to the day, but the government is yet to resolve an alleged gross human rights violation in Aceh in which Indonesian military personnel reportedly shot hundreds of people protesting against a previous shooting incident.
Adam Harvey, Indonesia – A video recording of Indonesian vigilantes detaining two young gay men captures them kicking, slapping and insulting the pair, shortly before they are turned over to the province's religious police.
Two Indonesians are to go on trial in an Islamic court for having gay sex and could receive 100 strokes of the cane if found guilty, officials in the conservative province of Aceh said, sparking calls from a rights group for their release.
New York – Indonesian authorities should immediately and unconditionally release two men detained in Aceh province under a local ordinance that criminalizes homosexuality, Human Rights Watch said today.
Banda Aceh, Indonesia – Two men in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province each face up to 100 strokes of the cane after neighbors reported them to Islamic religious police for having gay sex.
Marzuki, the Shariah police's chief investigator, said Saturday that if found guilty, the men will be the first to be caned for gay sex under a new code implemented two years ago.
Shannon Power – Two men were arrested in the Indonesian province of Aceh under the accusation they were gay and in a relationship. Neighbours reported the two students who said they had been acting "lovey-dovey" for about three months.
Jakarta – Amid the increasing popularity of halal tourism, Aceh has become one of Indonesia's emerging tourist destinations.
In the 2016 World Halal Tourism Award, the province received two prominent awards, namely World's Best Halal Cultural Destination and World's Best Airport for Halal Travelers, which was given to Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport.
Hotli Simanjuntak and Moses Ompusunggu, Banda Aceh/Jakarta – A prosecutor in Aceh province has claimed that two Buddhists voluntarily chose to be punished under sharia after being found guilty of gambling.
On March 9, hundreds of people in Aceh Besar regency, Aceh, witnessed the first instance of Buddhists being caned for violating sharia, which is implemented across the province.
Jimmy Nsubuga – A man and woman have been publicly lashed in Indonesia's ultra-conservative Aceh region for allegedly having sex outside of marriage.
They were punished in Banda Aceh, in the only region in the country to be ruled by strict Islamic Sharia law.
The woman received 100 lashes, while the man was given 120 – the same number of lashings as a child molester.
Jakarta – Election watchdog Aceh Elections Observer Coalition (KPPA) says it found 19 alleged violations during the election of regional heads in 16 areas across Aceh from Feb. 14 to Feb. 15.
KPPA spokesperson Aryos Nivada said Bireun and Pidie regencies had the highest number of violations, recording four cases each.
Phelim Kine – Authorities in Indonesia's Aceh province imposed the Sharia, or Islamic law, punishment of multiple lashes of a cane against 339 people in 2016, the first full-year of implementation of Aceh's Sharia's Criminal Code since it went into effect in September 2015.
Jakarta – The East Aceh consultative leadership board (Muspida) has agreed to cancel candidate debate events ahead of the election of regional heads in the regency.
Jakarta – Arya Fernandes, a political observer from the think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, gave a warning to the government to keep a close eye on next month's local election in Aceh, as the province has a long history of political conflicts.
The Aceh election will see a race between six pairs of candidates, including three running as independents.
Jakarta – Hundreds of people gathered at a mass grave of tsunami victims in Ulee Lhue, Banda Aceh, on Monday as they prayed for the souls of those buried there.
The victims were among more than 200,000 people killed in one of the biggest tsunamis ever recorded on Dec. 26, 2004.
Jewel Topsfield, Pidie Jaya, Indonesia – As the number of displaced people from Wednesday's earthquake ballooned to more than 23,000, the scarred communities of Aceh confronted an old fear: the spectre of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.
Mariana Yusuf is among several thousand people sheltering at Taqwa mosque in the hard-hit town on Meureudu, breastfeeding her baby amidt the chaos.
Jewel Topsfield – They are clearing a marketplace in Meureudu which was flattened by the earthquake that struck Aceh on Wednesday morning.
Villager Taufik Hidayat, who has been volunteering at the site since just after the quake struck at 5.03am, has seen far worse. "I wasn't scared. I was there to help. I carried his body," says Mr Taufik, sweating under his beanie.
Meureudu, Indonesia – Thousands of people in the Indonesian province of Aceh took refuge for the night in mosques and temporary shelters after a strong earthquake Wednesday killed nearly 100 people and destroyed dozens of buildings.
Oliver Holmes and agencies – At least 97 people have died and more are feared trapped in collapsed buildings after a powerful earthquake struck off Indonesia's Sumatra island at dawn on Wednesday.
Hotli Simanjuntak, Ruslan Sangadji, and Djemi Amnifu, Lhokseumawe/Palu/Kupang – Local authorities in several regions have stepped up security measures to prevent conflicts or violence following the massive rally that turned violent in some locations in Jakarta last Friday.
Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – While President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has committed to improving the lives of women across the country, including by ending violence against women and girls, those who live in Aceh face an increased risk of all kinds of violence following the introduction of a discriminative Islamic Criminal Code Bylaw (Qanun Jinayat) a year ago.
Banda Aceh – A young woman screamed in pain as she was caned in front of a jeering crowd in Aceh, Indonesia, the latest person to be punished after being found guilty of breaking the province's strict Islamic laws.
Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – In what is seen as a pro-family policy, the Aceh administration recently issued a regulation that grants career women six months paid maternity leave to give them more time with their newborns.
Jakarta – Six pairs of Aceh governor and deputy governor hopefuls took a Quran recitation test on Wednesday as one of the local requirements to compete in the 2017 election.
Jakarta – Two people have been killed in a blast believed to stem from a grenade detonating inside a car owned by a member of the Bener Meriah Legislative Council in Aceh on Saturday.
The incident took place at around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, while the car, belonging to Mansyur Ismail, was passing through the village of Alur Punti in Pintu Rime Gayo subdistrict, Bener Meriah regency.
Jakarta – Several village chiefs in Seunuddon subdistrict of North Aceh in Aceh shut down Bantayan and Ulee Matang beaches in the past week, following reports of visitors violating Islamic sharia law.
Arif Gunawan Sulistiyono, Jakarta – Leuser ecosystem, a UNESCO world heritage site that covers thousands of hectares of protected forest in Aceh and North Sumatra, must be included in the Aceh spatial plan regulation (Qanun RTRWA), former environment minister Emil Salim has stated.
Marguerite Afra Sapiie, Jakarta – The House of Representatives has approved the government's plan to provide an amnesty for 70 Acehnese former rebels, including their leader, Nurdin Ismail aka Din Minimi, who surrendered earlier this year.
Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights, or Komnas HAM, on Wednesday (22/06) named evidence of gross human rights abuse conducted by the soldiers in the 1999 Kertas Kraft Aceh tragedy, which killed dozens of people.
The commission said in a statement that it included massacre and persecution against rallying protesters in North Aceh district in 1999.
Adam Harvey, Aceh – There has been a surge in the number of public canings for moral offences in the Indonesian province of Aceh. Amnesty International said more than 108 people were caned in public last year for offences such as selling alcohol, gambling, and sex outside marriage.
Representatives of Aceh Singkil Christian residents have filed a report with the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), accusing their local government of discriminating against them in the courts and schools, as well as when it came to obtaining their church's construction permit.
Hotli Simanjuntak – The Takengon Prosecutor's Office in Central Aceh regency, Aceh, caned on Tuesday a 60-year-old woman, Remita Sinaga, alias Mak Ucok, for violating sharia by storing and selling alcohol. She was the first non-Muslim to be subjected to the punishment in Aceh.
Lhokseumawe – A concert featuring an up-and-coming local pop sensation was banned by the city administration of Lhokseumawe, Aceh, who said it was violating shariah law.
Marguerite Afra Sapiie – People grouped under Gerakan Rakyat Menggugat (GeRAM) are raising awareness for the need to protect the Leuser Ecosystem Zone (KEL) in Aceh through an online petition.
Jewel Topsfield, Jakarta – Outdoor music concerts have been banned from a regency in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province on the grounds they violate Sharia law.
Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – A group of women were paraded onto a waiting truck that would carry them to the nearby sharia police office. They would likely be charged for not wearing a hijab, which has been made mandatory in the only province that has adopted Islamic law.
Banda Aceh – A young woman collapsed while being publicly caned in Banda Aceh on Thursday for violating sharia.
Sakdiah, 22, who was sentenced to receiving 20 lashes with a cane for going on dates with her boyfriend, Budiman, was carried away on a stretcher by a medical team for treatment, Antara news agency reported on Thursday.
Hotli Simanjuntak and Ahmad Junaidi, Banda Aceh/Jakarta – Bieureun regency in Aceh has banned the employment of openly transgender people at beauty parlors, expressing concern about the influence of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community on the youth.
Jakarta – Ulemas in the West Aceh regency say there is no place for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the area and are threatening to cane those committing such activities as they claim they are violating the laws of God and sharia as implemented in Indonesia's westernmost province.
Banda Aceh – Officials in Aceh disbanded a talent show on Sunday evening (28/02) for featuring a fashion show displaying clothing deemed inappropriate under the province's shariah bylaws.
Jakarta – Members of the House of Representatives have criticized the government's plan to grant amnesty to former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) member Nurdin bin Ismail, popularly known as Din Minimi.
Many of the House lawmakers said that Din was ineligible for amnesty due to his role in a separatist movement.
Aceh fishermen are nominated to receive the 2016 Nansen Refugee Award from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) for rescuing hundreds of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh in Indonesian waters.
Michael Neilson, Jakarta – Activists are suing the Indonesian government in a bid to stop development they say will devastate the last remaining area on earth where Sumatran tigers, rhinoceroses, orangutans and elephants live together in the wild.
Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – A group of Aceh citizens will lodge a civil lawsuit against the Home Ministry at the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday in a bid to preserve the Leuser Ecosystem Zone (KEL), which they consider a unique and irreplaceable natural environment.
Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The government must rule out an option of granting amnesty to former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) combatant Din Minimi and his fellow insurgents as such a move could create legal uncertainty and inspire an upsurge of terrorist activities, a public discussion in Banda Aceh concluded on Thursday.
Jakarta – Rights activist are calling the Indonesian government's decision to provide amnesty to former Aceh fugitive Din Minimi inappropriate, arguing that he was more the leader of a crime ring than a group with a specific political ideology.
The pardon, they warned, could lead to a wave of similar requests from criminals.