Further information on UA: 238/14 Index: ASA 21/029/2014

The Aceh parliament has passed a Shari'a bylaw that would criminalize, among other things, same-sex sexual relations and consensual sex outside marriage, punishable by caning. The governor of Aceh and central government have powers to block its implementation.

Jakarta – Indonesia's central government and the Aceh provincial government should take steps to repeal two new Islamic bylaws that violate rights and carry cruel punishments, Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Thursday.

Indonesia's incoming president should treat Aceh's abusive new bylaws as an opportunity to demonstrate a commitment to human rights, and have them repealed. People in Aceh should enjoy the same rights and freedoms as all Indonesians. – Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director

Banda Aceh – Four men accused of gambling will be lined up in the courtyard of a Banda Aceh mosque and lashed with a cane after prayers on Friday, the Banda Aceh prosecutor's office has told Indonesian state media.

Michael Bachelard, Jakarta – Gay sex and sex outside marriage in the Indonesian province of Aceh will be punishable by 100 lashes of the cane under new laws passed by the local parliament.

Even non-Muslim tourists to Indonesia's westernmost province are subject to the sharia law penalty in a step rights groups have described as an "enormous step backwards".

Indonesia's conservative Aceh province passed a law on Saturday making gay sex punishable by 100 lashes of the cane, in a decision described by rights activists as "an enormous step backwards".

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The Aceh provincial administration's plan to impose Shariah on non-Muslims has met a chorus of disapproval from the province's minority religious groups.

UA: 238/14 Index: ASA 21/028/2014

The Aceh parliament is planning to pass a Shari'a bylaw before the end of September that would criminalize, among other things, same-sex sexual relations and consensual sex outside marriage. Those found guilty could be caned up to 100 times.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Human rights activists' criticism of the plan to impose a Shariah-inspired criminal code on non-Muslims in Aceh is uncalled-for, a legislator said on Wednesday, adding that the new regulation would be more lenient than the actual law of God.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Citing the need to end discrimination, Aceh lawmakers plan to pass a bylaw this week that would impose a Shariah-based criminal code on Muslims and non-Muslims alike, with offenders facing lengthy caning sessions or jail terms for acts that are perfectly legal elsewhere in Indonesia.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Eight people received five lashes each in Aceh on Friday after they were found guilty of gambling.

Index: ASA 21/026/2014

Amnesty International deplores the caning of five men on 5 September 2014 in Pidie district, in Indonesia's Aceh province. The Indonesian government must end the use of caning as a form of punishment, and the bylaws that provide for it in Aceh province must be repealed.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – For the first time in eight years, five residents of Aceh's Pidie district on Friday were caned publicly for gambling, a violation of Shariah laws enforced in the province.

The public caning in the yard of Al-Falah mosque in Sigli was witnessed by around 1,000 people after Friday prayers.

Index: ASA 21/021/2014

Joint statement by Amnesty International and the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS).

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Three women in Aceh charged with consorting with non-related males could face three to nine lashes of the cane following their arrest by the province's shariah police over the weekend.

Jakarta – The Aceh provincial administration has called on the central government to immediately finish the deliberation of crucial regulations as mandated by the Aceh Governance Law.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The Aceh Shariah Police have banned any sales of food at daytime during Ramadan, and that rule also applies to non-Muslims so as not to offend Muslims who are fasting.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – In a visit to Sumatra's northernmost province, the European Union's ambassador to Indonesia expressed concern over human rights abuses, against women in particular, that have been documented under the semi-autonomous province's enforcement of shariah law.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The morality police in Aceh are on the prowl once again as the Islamic holy month of Ramadan approaches, increasing the frequency of their raids against... crimes of fashion.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police on Sunday said they had arrested three men suspected of involvement in the March shooting of an Aceh National Party (PNA) legislative candidate.

Banda Aceh – The Banda Aceh Military Court on Friday sentenced Chief Pvt. Heri Safitri of the Yonif 111/Raider Paya Bakong, North Aceh, to three years in prison for lending his rifle to civilians who used it to shoot up a political party office on Feb. 17, 2014.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The investment climate in Aceh remains mired by stumbling blocks that have hampered economic acceleration despite foreign and domestic investment this year increasing from last year.

UA: 121/14 Index: ASA 21/014/2014

A woman gang-raped by eight men who accused her of adultery is now at risk of being caned for this "offence" in Indonesia's Aceh province.

Josua Gantan, Jakarta – The order by authorities in Aceh to have a woman and her married lover caned for adultery, even after she had been gang-raped by vigilante enforcers of Shariah, has spurred a maelstrom of criticism and soul-searching about the place of Islamic jurisprudence in Muslim-majority but secular Indonesia.

Banda Aceh – The Network for Civil Society Concerned with Sharia (JMSPS) has called on the Langsa City administration to help heal the mental state of a woman who was recently gang raped at her house in Langsa, Aceh, instead of focusing on bringing her to justice for adultery.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Women's rights activists in Aceh have criticized local authorities in the town of Langsa for insisting on caning a woman there for having alleged extramarital sex, even after she was gang raped by a vigilante group purporting to crack down on vice.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Environmental activists in Aceh slammed the prosecution for seeking what they view as lenient punishment for the director of a palm oil company who is accused of damaging a natural habitat for orangutans.

Nurdin Hasan & Kennial Caroline Laia, Banda Aceh – A woman in Aceh who was gang raped last week after being accused of having extramarital sex now faces the indignity of a public caning for the offense of having an affair.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – An activist has condemned the latest case of sexual violence in Aceh, which involved a group of men allegedly raiding the home of a woman they accused of being engaged in extramarital sex, and raping her.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police in Aceh have arrested three people, including a 13-year-old boy, and are hunting five others for allegedly raping a woman they accused of having extramarital sex.

Michael Bachelard, Kuala Simpang, Aceh – On the map, the Leuser Ecosystem is shaped like a gigantic pair of lungs. The image is apt. This 2.6 million hectare expanse of tropical forest that spans Aceh and North Sumatra in Indonesia is one of the largest remaining oxygen factories in a country that's become infamous for slashing and burning its trees.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Female activists in Aceh, affiliated with the 231 Monitoring Network, have urged the government and police to investigate child abuse cases in the province.

Indecisiveness on the part of the government and law enforcers is deemed to have contributed to the rising incidence of sexual abuse cases, due to the lack of a deterrent effect.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police in Aceh have named one of their own members a suspect in the alleged sexual abuse of at least two young girls, as clerics in the staunchly conservative province demand a stiff punishment for the alleged perpetrator.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The Aceh administration's approval of the Qanun Hukum Acara Jinayat (criminal code procedure) bylaw authorizes sharia police in the province to detain any person suspected of violating sharia for a maximum of 20 days, if initial counseling of the offender proves ineffective.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Although the legislative election in Aceh on Wednesday was regarded as a success due to a lack of serious security issues, it was still marred by violence, intimidation and vote-buying, activists say.

Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Moeldoko on Friday offered an apology in light of the shooting of a Nasdem Party campaign post in North Aceh regency on Feb. 16, which involved the use of a TNI-issued weapon.

Index: ASA 21/010/2014

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The sharia police in Banda Aceh, Aceh Nanggroe Darussalam, have rounded up 15 young women after they were "caught" in a late-night coffee shop.

They have been accused of not wearing appropriate Muslim clothing and for loitering outdoors after midnight, both deemed to violate the Islamic moral code.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Three people, including a one-and-a-half-year-old infant, were killed in Aceh after unidentified gunmen fired on a car decked out with political banners, in what police believe may be another incidence of election-related violence in the province.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Escalating political tension and rampant violence in Aceh in the run-up to next month's the legislative election have prompted activists to declare an emergency in the province.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police charged 21 members and supporters of the Aceh Party over a string of violent attacks on rival political parties ahead of the April legislative election.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Two National Aceh Party (PNA) members were critically injured and a member of the Aceh Party (PA) was hospitalized for non-life-threatening injuries in related incidents on Friday.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The Indonesian Military (TNI) said on Wednesday it was investigating allegations that several soldiers had rented their guns to the perpetrators of an attack on a National Democratic (NasDem) Party campaign office in the district of North Aceh last month.

Farouk Arnaz, Jakarta – One of the participants in an attack on a National Democrat Party (NasDem) campaign office in Munyee Kunyet village, North Aceh in February was a former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) combatant, police said on Tuesday.

Banda Aceh – Two unidentified men threw a grenade at the Aceh Party office in Lueng Bata district, Banda Aceh, on Tuesday night, injuring a 9-year-old boy and damaging the office's door and shattering window panes.

"We are working on identifying the perpetrators and motive behind the grenade-throwing," Banda Aceh Police chief Sr. Comr. Moffan MK said at the scene.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Poor law enforcement and a failed political transformation by former militants involved in the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) are responsible for several incidents of political violence that occurred in the province ahead of next month's legislative elections, an activist says.

Kennial Caroline Laia, Jakarta – A recent string of attacks against legislative candidates and political parties' headquarters in Aceh may be a form of dissatisfaction toward efforts to introduce a national idealism into the province which only a few years ago was waging an armed struggle for separation from Indonesia, an analyst says.

Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – An Aceh National Party (PNA) legislative candidate was shot and killed late Sunday night in a hail of bullets – the latest attack on the political party ahead of April's general elections.

Yuliasri Perdani, Jakarta – The recent shooting of a National Democrat (NasDem) Party campaign post in Aceh was politically motivated, party members said.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Imposing sharia on non-Muslims is inappropriate as Islamic law only regulates matters relevant to Islam and to do so tarnishes the image of the faith and thus harms it, says an Acehnese cleric.