Australian tourists in Bali could be ensnared by a new Indonesian law punishing sex outside marriage with up to a year in jail, although officials say visitors “shouldn’t be worried'
Australian tourists in Bali could be ensnared by a new Indonesian law punishing sex outside marriage with up to a year in jail, although officials say visitors “shouldn’t be worried".
The law changes have raised questions about whether foreigners, including the thousands of Australian tourists who travel to Bali every week, could be caught in the crosshairs while on holiday.The legislation on sex outside marriage and cohabitation is complaint-based, with only a husband or wife of a married person or the parents or children of an unmarried person able to report a matter to police. That means de facto foreign couples effectively can’t be denounced to authorities.
The rewriting of the criminal code has been through many iterations and has been highly contentious. In 2019, demonstrators took to the streets in cities around the archipelago when a previous version was on the cusp of being ratified. “In the old draft, a village chief could lodge a complaint but even in the 2019 draft, that part was already taken out,” he said.
But under the new code, people can be prosecuted for expressing views contrary to Indonesia’s national ideology, as well as for peacefully protesting without authorisation and for acts of blasphemy, which carry a penalty of as much as five years in prison.
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