Married Muslims in Indonesia's staunchly Islamic province of Aceh could be publicly stoned for committing adultery under a new piece of legislation that the autonomous province's legislature is scheduled to pass on Monday.With partial Shariah law already in place under the broad autonomy accorded to end almost three decades of violent separatist conflict, Aceh looks set to take a giant and controversial step with the law, which also mandates that single Muslims caught having premarital sex will get 100 lashes with a whip.The drastic punishments are part of a regional regulations bill on local customs (qanun) regarding Islamic crimes (jinayat) that the Aceh Provincial Legislature (DPRA) will endorse, Raihan Iskandar, deputy chairman of the body, told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday.Iskandar, a member of the conservative Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said a special legislative committee had finished deliberating the bill after receiving input from various groups."The team has discussed it with . experts from the police, [local] Attorney General's Office, judges, the High Court, Shariah Court, scholars and Islamic law experts," he said, denying the bill was controversial and saying that it mostly followed nationally accepted laws.He also said the 2006 Law on the Governing of Aceh, passed by the House of Representatives in Jakarta, authorized the province to pass regional regulations and that the province was free to implement an Islamic criminal code."But we cannot blindly lash or stone people," he said. "It must be done based on regulations as stipulated in the qanun, starting with investigation, interrogation, arrest and trial in the Shariah Court."Dozens of young men from the Communications Forum for Shariah rallied in front of the local legislative building on Tuesday in support of the bill. Basri Efendi, one of the demonstrators, said Aceh's provincial government and its governor, Irwandi Yusuf, did not support implementing more Shariah laws.Former President Abdurrahman Wahid first endorsed Shariah for Aceh nearly a decade ago, but said at the time that it couldn't include harsh punishments such as stoning or decapitations because they violated human rights and the country's Constitution.Nonetheless, Iskandar assured the demonstrators in Banda Aceh that the bill would be passed. "We have received much support to ratify it. We hope with the existence of the qanun jinayat code, there will be a clear mandate to enforce Islamic Shariah in Aceh," he said.It remains to be seen whether the public stonings in Aceh will provoke controversy. Presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng declined to comment on the proposed legislation on Tuesday, saying he wasn't fully aware yet of its details.Andi Nasrun, an expert on state administration based in Jakarta, said a qanun jinayat code was not against the law because Aceh had a special privilege to impose Shariah based on its history as the country's bastion of Islam."Even the Constitution states that the province's special character should be respected and preserved," Andi said.But Nurkholis, a member of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said the legality of the code was still debatable. "Such a code has the potential to violate human rights if it's not enforced properly," he said.Aceh native Thayeb Loh Angen, editor in chief of the Harian Aceh newspaper, blasted the planned legislation as unnecessary. "Fix the governance system, arrest corruptors, stop taking care of unimportant matters - that's what this province really needs," he said.
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