(ANSA) - ROME, DECEMBER 06 - The Indonesian Parliament has approved legislative amendments that ban premarital sex and make other significant changes to the country's Penal Code.
The vice president of Parliament, Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, said he was in favor of the text, which obtained the majority of votes in the plenary and which is criticized by its detractors as a setback for freedoms in the Muslim majority country.
Among the most controversial articles of the newly adopted code is the criminalization of extramarital sex, as well as the cohabitation of unmarried couples.
According to human rights organizations, these rules could also have a strong impact on the LGBTQ community in Indonesia, where same-sex marriage is not allowed.
Two men were publicly whipped in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province on the island of Sumatra for having sex.
The two received 77 lashes each from a masked officer in front of a crowd at Banda Ace, as reported by the BBC by publishing a photo.
The two, aged 27 and 29, gasped in pain as they were hit by robed and face-covered officers who beat them on the back with a rattan stick.
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