Police in Sidoarjo, in Indonesia’s East Java province, on Monday introduced three detained men at a press conference, accusing them of founding a same-sex or LGBT community on Facebook that distributed pornographic content.
Indonesian media outlets such as the Jakarta Globe reported that the two 22-year-olds and a 32-year-old allegedly “shared explicit videos and images.” The suspects were arrested after a 24-hour cyber patrol by the local criminal police in a rented room in a densely populated area of Taman. Officers had noticed the Facebook group during the surveillance.
In addition to log files and pornographic files, the police collected further “evidence,” including contraceptives, scented oils, lubricants, and sex toys. Videos of the raid and the arrest of the men, who were not wearing masks or otherwise made unrecognizable, were released by the police through media outlets. Under a statute prohibiting the distribution of “obscene materials” in electronic media, the men could face up to twelve years in prison.
Raids and corporal punishment
It remains unclear whether the men actually distributed pornography that is quickly detected and banned by Facebook, or merely queer content. Last year, Indonesia debated a bill to ban “LGBTQ” content on television (TheColu.mn reported). According to the Human Dignity Trust, provisions against pornography are more often used as a tool to target queer people.
In recent years, there have been multiple raids arresting people at supposed “gay parties,” the most recent in June (TheColu.mn reported). Homosexuality remains not criminalized nationwide—though a new law expected to take effect next year would punish extramarital sex with up to a year in prison (TheColu.mn reported).
On Monday it became known that an Islamic court in Aceh, a conservative province, sentenced two young men to 80 public lashes each for kissing and hugging (TheColu.mn reported). The Indonesian central government granted the province autonomous status in 2001, which allows the application of Sharia law there. Up to 100 lashes can be imposed for homosexuality or offenses such as adultery, gambling, and alcohol consumption—since 2015 also for non-Muslims, who make up about one percent of the population in the region. The same court had previously, in February, convicted two men of alleged homosexuality to 85 and 80 lashes (TheColu.mn reported). According to the Associated Press, Aceh has so far recorded five convictions of men for alleged homosexuality.
