Nurdin Hasan & Nivell Rayda, Banda Aceh & Jakarta – Aceh's deputy governor and Shariah Police chief have dismissed a critical report on the province from an international human rights group, calling it exaggerated and based on factual errors.

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday released a report slamming the autonomous region's Shariah-inspired bylaws and the abusive methods used by the Shariah Police, particularly against women.

The 89-page HRW report urges the central government to intervene and repeal at least two bylaws in Aceh, the broadly worded "seclusion" bylaw and another on dress codes, which it says are often abused and selectively applied.

The seclusion bylaw makes association by unmarried individuals of the opposite sex a criminal offense in some circumstances, the report says, while the dress code imposes onerous restrictions on women.

The HRW report also details evidence that the bylaws are selectively enforced, being rarely if ever applied to wealthy or politically connected individuals.

"In Aceh, there is no specific qanun [Islamic bylaw] on clothing requirements as mentioned by the HRW report," Muhammad Nazar, Aceh's deputy governor, told the Jakarta Globe in Banda Aceh.

"Before the HRW conducted research into these issues, they should have studied the foundations of the regulations. The clothing requirement is regulated via an article in Bylaw No. 11 of 2002 on the implementation of Islamic faith and prayers. Both Muslim men and women must cover their aurat [private parts of the body] – that's it, nothing more. It is not its own law."

Nazar said the HRW had "exaggerated" the situation in Aceh in its report. "What is actually applied in Aceh is moderate Islam," he said. "There is not a single article in our bylaws that violates human rights."

The HRW said the two bylaws in question violated both Indonesia's Constitution and international human rights law, adding that Aceh was the only province in the country that was authorized by national law to adopt laws derived from Islam.

The bylaws singled out by the group are among five Shariah-inspired regulations adopted in Aceh on issues ranging from gambling to charitable giving and Islamic rituals. "Please mention even a single law that has been violated through the implementation of Shariah in Aceh," Nazar said. "Whatever has been done in Aceh is in accordance with the national law that has acknowledged Aceh's special status.

"Members of this HRW team had met with me before the release of this report. In that meeting, I explained to them the problems I had found with the report and yet they still published it. All parties, whether Indonesian or foreigners, must respect the implementation of Shariah law in Aceh, because the implementation reflects the desires of the Acehnese."

The HRW report draws particular attention to the fact that women are overwhelmingly the target of reprimands by the Shariah Police. According to the group, its researchers spoke to several women in Aceh who said they had been harassed by Shariah Police officers because of the dress code or seclusion bylaw.

Among those interviewed for the report was a woman identified only as Rohani. She told the HRW of an incident last year during which members of her community detained and beat her 17-year-old daughter's boyfriend because he had visited her house for an hour after dark – even though Rohani and her younger daughter had been at home at the time. The villagers, according to the report, then attempted to compel the couple to marry.

In response to the allegations outlined in the report, Aceh's Shariah Police chief, Marzuki Abdullah, told the Globe that it would sue the HRW if it found the report was not based on facts.

"We will first thoroughly study the report. If they have written things that are not in line with facts, we will sue them because we always work in accordance with the law," he said.

"Do not defame us. It is a lie that any officer of mine has forced couples caught violating Shariah to marry each other. If we catch them, normally we lecture them not to do it again."

The Langsa District Court in East Aceh in July sentenced two members of the Shariah Police to eight years in prison each for the rape of a 20-year-old student. The victim had been in detention, for allegedly engaging in an immoral act, when she was raped.