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Vigilantes raid home of 'gay' men who were sent to Islamic school to 'cure' them
Gay Star News - March 7, 2018
The group stormed the men's room at a boarding house in West Jakarta on Saturday evening. Gay Star News has chosen not to name the men aged 40 and 28 who work in business and as a labourer respectively.
The vigilantes accused them of being a couple and having sex when they raided their home. Neighbors said they became suspicious of them men because they had allegedly seen them hugging.
Police confirmed the mob delivered the men to them by and they were processed at the Palmerah Station.
'Residents raided the rented rented house and found (the men), were living in a relationship like a married couple.By local residents, LGBT couples were brought directly to Palmerah Police. Residents are already suspicious signs LGBT couple,' Chief of Palmerah Police, Kompol Aryono, told Warta Kota.
The men were not charged, but it is understood they were sent to 'prayer rehab' and social conformity classes at Jakarta's Social Services.
A source told Gay Star News
the men have been subjected to a 'trial by social media' and condemnation
by their own neighbours.
Not illegal to be gay, yet
Homosexuality is not illegal in Indonesia, but the House of Representatives will soon debate a bill that criminalizes homosexual and pre-marital sex.
The latest raid comes amid a two-year crackdown on the LGBTI community that has seen hundreds of men detained on suspicion of being gay.
In Aceh vigilante groups have targeted gay men and trans women which led to the arrest and caning of two men in 2017.
When raiding suspected parties
and homes of LGBTI people, police use the country's strict anti-pornography
laws to arrest them.
Afraid to be gay in Indonesia
A gay man* who lives near the men's home told Gay Star News LGBTI people were becoming more afraid.
'I've heard of police harassment happening around my friends' apartments, but the fact that this is happening so close to where I'm staying is making me feel terribly unsafe,' he said.
'What's worse is that this is caused by fellow neighbours in a private living space.'
[His name has been kept private for his own safety.]
Source: https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/vigilantes-raid-home-gay-men-sent-islamic-school-cure/.
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