Friday, January 15, 2010

Indonesian shariah police accused of gang rape

Moral hypocrisy. LA Times

Three members of a civilian patrol that enforces Islam's strict Sharia law in Indonesia's Aceh province have been accused of gang-raping a 20-year-old university student, authorities there said.

The attack allegedly occurred this month at a small-town police station after the patrol members, known here as the Sharia police, took the woman into custody. Two men, ages 27 and 29, were arrested and one is still being sought, authorities said.

Activists say the accusation seriously undermines the credibility of the controversial Sharia police patrols.

"They don't have the authority to detain people -- their role is to give moral advice, that's it," said Norma Manalu, director of Aceh's human rights coalition. "They misused their power." Aceh's "vice and virtue patrol" enforces religious codes across the only province in the nation to employ Sharia, or Islamic law, for its criminal code. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country.

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