19 Dec 2017

Indonesia jails men for 'gay sex party'

Ten men out of some 140 arrested at a sauna in Indonesian capital Jakarta in May were put behind bars.

An Indonesian court last week sentenced 10 men to two years in prison after they were arrested in a raid on a gay sauna in capital Jakarta in May, according to the Star Online.

The men were sentenced under the country's controversial 2008 anti-pornography law and were also fined USD 70,000.

"(The defendants) have been proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt of displaying nudity and sexual exploitation collectively in public," documents viewed by Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency said.

"It is an abuse of these gay men's rights. It is not a crime, they did not hurt anyone," said Andreas Harsono, a Human Rights Watch researcher in Jakarta.