UK Rapist Spawns Anti-LGBT Action In Indonesia

The Jakarta Post reports:

In response to reports that the family of Reynhard Sinaga, an Indonesian convicted serial rapist in the United Kingdom, lives in Depok, West Java, the city’s mayor has instructed his administration to conduct raids against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

Reynhard, a 36-year-old PhD student, was sentenced on Jan. 6 by a court in Manchester to life on 136 counts of rape, eight counts of attempted rape, 13 counts of sexual assault and two counts of sexual assault with penetration, with the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service calling him “the worst-known sex-offender in the country’s history”, AFP reports. All of his victims were men.

Depok mayor Mohammad Idris said he had requested that the city’s Health Agency, Social Affairs Agency and Child Protection and Family Empowerment Agency heighten efforts to prevent the “spread of LGBT” in order to “strengthen families’ resilience and especially protect the children.”

Depok is a Jakarta suburb with a population of nearly two million. My first report on Sinaga is here.

Last year Indonesia banned LGBT persons from holding government jobs. The country’s populous Aceh province is under Sharia law and gay men there have recently been subjected to public floggings.