Indonesian rights groups condemn new stoning law

[forum_admin]

Indonesian rights activists condemned as "cruel and degrading" on Tuesday a new Islamic law calling for adulterers to be stoned to death in the country's staunchly conservative Aceh province.

The law -- which also allows punishments of up to 400 lashes for child rape, 100 lashes for homosexual acts and 60 lashes for gambling -- was passed unanimously Monday by lawmakers in the region at the northern tip of Sumatra island.

The law replaces elements of Indonesia's criminal code with sharia, or Islamic law, for Muslims. It allows the death penalty for married people and 100 lashes for unmarried people found guilty in cases of adultery.

"The laws that have been approved in Aceh are cruel and degrading to humanity," National Commission on Human Rights head Ifdhal Kasim told AFP.

The law undermines the secular basis of Indonesia's law, Kasim said, adding the rights group was appealing to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to review the legislation.

"This will bring Aceh back to the past. Throwing stones is like Aceh in the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries," Kasim said, adding the law would likely embolden conservatives pushing for sharia on a national level.

The controversial legal change was passed in Aceh just weeks before a new, more moderate provincial assembly -- dominated by the Aceh Party of former separatist fighters of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) -- is due to take power.



A man grimaces as he is caned in public for gambling by a veiled law-enforcement official in Banda Aceh