Lesbian lovers separated in Indonesia's Aceh

Aug 26, 2011, 7:37 GMT

Jakarta - Authorities in Indonesia's staunchly Muslim province of Aceh have separated a lesbian couple who were married under the pretense of being a heterosexual couple, a report said Friday.

The couple were arrested last week after it was discovered that the 'husband' was in fact a woman who faked her identity to marry her lesbian lover.

But the authorities decided to release and return the women aged 21 and 25 to their parents because they could not charge them with any crime, the Jakarta Globe reported.

Lesbianism is not regulated under the province's Islamic bylaws.

'They were returned to their parents after they promised not to see each other again,' head of the district's public order unit, Muddasir, was quoted as saying by the Globe.

'Of course they agreed because otherwise they should be beheaded because what they did was strongly forbidden in Islam,' added Muddasir, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.

Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that imposes a form of Islamic law under an autonomy scheme granted by the central government.