Hong Kong transport authorities approve LGBT ad after backlash

Yahoo – AFP, May 21, 2019

Campaigners have criticised Hong Kong for lagging behind on equality issues
(AFP Photo/Yan ZHAO)

A Cathay Pacific advert featuring two men holding hands can now be displayed across Hong Kong's transport network, after its reported ban sparked a public outcry.

Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post reported Monday that the city's airport and MTR train operator had barred the gay-friendly ad from its crowded terminals, citing sources.

The news emerged just after Taiwan's parliament legalised same-sex marriage last week in a landmark first for Asia, placing the island at the vanguard of the region's burgeoning gay rights movement.

By contrast, campaigners have criticised semi-autonomous Hong Kong for lagging behind on equality issues.

Neither Cathay Pacific nor the transport authorities directly confirmed or denied the ban which triggered a massive backlash.

LGBT group Big Love Alliance launched a campaign on Monday encouraging Hong Kongers to share on social media photos of themselves holding hands with their same-sex partners or friends at the airport or the MTR.

As public pressure mounted, airport authorities said on Tuesday the advert now had their full blessing.

The ad is deemed "not in infringement of the Airport Authority's established guidelines on advertisements displayed in the terminal", a spokesperson said in a statement.

JCDecaux, an agency that handles advertising bookings for the MTR Corporation, also appeared to have reversed course.

"We have advised... that the design can be posted at MTR stations," a JCDecaux spokeswoman in Hong Kong told AFP.

Ray Chan, Hong Kong's first openly gay lawmaker, welcomed the move saying public and media pressure have made transport officials and their advertising agencies "right their wrong".

The city airport is operated by a Hong Kong government body, while the MTR Corporation is majority-owned by the government.

Hong Kong does not recognise same-sex marriage or civil unions and only decriminalised homosexuality in 1991.

But a British lesbian won the right to live and work in Hong Kong with her partner in a landmark ruling last year hailed by rights groups.

A separate case has been lodged by two Hong Kong men directly challenging the same-sex marriage ban as unconstitutional.

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Taiwan parliament to vote on Asia's first gay marriage bill

Yahoo – AFP, May 16, 2019

Taiwan's top court has ruled that not allowing same-sex couples to marry
violates the constitution (AFP Photo/Chris STOWERS)

Taiwan will decide whether to pass Asia's first gay marriage law on Friday as conservative lawmakers launch a last-ditch attempt to scupper the bill despite a court ruling ordering same-sex marital equality.

Protesters on both sides of the debate will gather outside Taipei's parliament for what looks set to be a mammoth legislative debate over an issue that has bitterly divided the island.

Parliament is up against a ticking clock.

Taiwan's top court has ruled that not allowing same-sex couples to marry violates the constitution. Judges gave the government two years to make necessary changes by May 24, 2019 or see marriage equality enacted automatically.

With that deadline fast approaching, three bills have been tabled for Friday -- which also happens to be the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.

The most progressive is the government's bill, the only one to use the word "marriage" and offer limited adoption rights.

Opponents warn that "forcefully" passing a gay marriage law will intensify 

tensions (AFP Photo/Daniel Shih)

It is backed -- begrudgingly -- by gay rights groups who see it as the closest thing to full equality with heterosexual couples, despite its limitations.

Opponents have tabled two other versions which avoid the word marriage, offering something closer to same-sex unions with no adoption rights.

Conservative and religious groups have been buoyed by a series of referendum wins in November, in which voters comprehensively rejected defining marriage as anything other than a union between a man and a woman.

President Tsai Ing-wen has said the government's bill respects both the court judgement and the referendum.

"I hope everybody can be considerate and tolerate different opinions to show Taiwan is a mature civil society that is capable of handling a divisive issue," she said on Tuesday.

Tsai's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) holds the majority in parliament, occupying 68 out of 113 seats.

Taiwan's LGBT community has been left in limbo 

the last two years (AFP Photo/SAM YEH)

But there is no guarantee her own lawmakers will vote for the more progressive bill, especially as many fear being punished by conservative voters at the ballot box in January.

One of the rival bills was proposed by a DPP lawmaker.

Taiwan's LGBT community has been left in limbo the last two years, with many couples planning weddings ahead of the May 24th deadline but unsure of what marriage equality will look like.

"We will have a clear answer this week about how this country will treat gay couples in the future," said Jennifer Lu, a spokeswoman for Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan.

"The cabinet's bill is already a discounted version but it covers the most for now. The other bills are not only unconstitutional but discriminatory."

Opponents warn that "forcefully" passing a gay marriage law will intensify tensions.

"The cabinet's bill ignores the referendum results and that is unacceptable," said Lai Shyh-bao of the opposition Kuomintang party, who proposed one of the bills backed by conservatives.

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Taiwan approves same-sex marriage in first for Asia - (News)

Indonesian court sentences French drug smuggler to death

Yahoo – AFP, May 20, 2019

Felix Dorfin was arrested in September carrying a suitcase filled with about three
kilograms of drugs, including ecstasy and amphetamines (AFP Photo/ARSYAD ALI)

An Indonesian court sentenced Frenchman Felix Dorfin to death for drug smuggling on Monday, in a shock verdict after prosecutors asked for a 20-year jail term.

Dorfin, 35, was arrested in September carrying a suitcase filled with about three kilograms (6.6 pounds) of drugs including ecstasy and amphetamines at the airport in Lombok, a holiday island next to Bali where foreigners are routinely arrested on drugs charges.

Indonesia has some of the world's strictest drug laws -- including death by firing squad for some drug traffickers and it has executed foreigners in the past.

While prosecutors had not asked for the death penalty, Indonesian courts have been known to go beyond their demands.

"After finding Felix Dorfin legally and convincingly guilty of importing narcotics ... (he) is sentenced to the death penalty," presiding judge Isnurul Syamsul Arif told the court.

He cited Dorfin's involvement in an international drug syndicate and the amount of drugs in his possession as aggravating factors.

"The defendant's actions could potentially do damage to the younger generation," Arif added.

The Frenchman made headlines in January when he escaped from a police detention centre and spent nearly two weeks on the run before he was captured.

A female police officer was arrested for allegedly helping Dorfin escape from jail in exchange for money.

It was not clear if the jailbreak played any role in Monday's stiffer-than-expected sentence.

Dorfin, who is from Bethune in northern France, sat impassively through much of the hearing in front of three judges, as a translator scribbled notes beside him.

He said little as he walked past reporters to a holding cell after the sentencing.

"Dorfin was shocked," the Frenchman's lawyer Deny Nur Indra told AFP.

"He didn't expect this at all because prosecutors only asked for 20 years."

The lawyer said he would appeal against the sentence, describing his client as a "victim" who did not know the exact contents of what he was carrying.

"If he had known, he wouldn't have brought it here," Indra added.

In 2015, Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran -- the accused ringleaders of the Bali Nine heroin smuggling gang -- were executed by firing squad in Indonesia.

The case sparked diplomatic outrage and a call to abolish the death penalty.

The Bali Nine gang's only female member was released from jail last year, while some others remain in prison.

A number of foreigners in Indonesia are on death row including cocaine-smuggling British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford and Serge Atlaoui, a Frenchman who has been on death row since 2007.

Last year, eight Taiwanese drug smugglers were sentenced to death by an Indonesian court after being caught with around a tonne of crystal methamphetamine.

Brunei says death penalty moratorium to cover sharia laws

Yahoo – AFP, May 5, 2019

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah's remarks on capital punishment appeared aimed at
assuaging worldwide criticism (AFP Photo/Andrea VERDELLI)

Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei) (AFP) - Brunei's sultan said Sunday a moratorium on capital punishment will also extend to sharia laws that include stoning to death for gay sex and adultery, after a furious backlash against the punishments.

It was the first time Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah had commented publicly on the new penal code since it fully entered force last month, and his remarks appeared aimed at assuaging worldwide criticism.

The laws, which also include amputation of hands and feet for thieves in the tiny sultanate on Borneo island, sparked fury from celebrities, including actor George Clooney, the United Nations and rights groups.

In a televised speech ahead of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the sultan said: "I am aware that there are many questions and misperceptions with regard to the implementation of the (sharia penal code)."

"There should not be any concern on the sharia law as it is full of Allah's mercy and blessings," he said, according to an official translation of his address.

"As evident for more than two decades, we have practised a de facto moratorium on the execution of death penalty for cases under the common law.

"This will also be applied to cases under the (sharia penal code), which provides a wider scope for remission."

He also vowed Brunei would ratify the United Nations convention against torture which it signed several years ago.

Muslim-majority Brunei operates a dual-track legal system with civil courts operating alongside sharia courts that handle issues such as marital and inheritance cases.

Some crimes were already punishable with death by hanging under the civil code but Brunei has not executed anyone for decades, and the sultan's comments suggest this will not change with the introduction of the new sharia laws.

Rape and robbery are also punishable by death under the sharia code and many of the new laws, such as capital punishment for insulting the Prophet Mohammed, apply to non-Muslims as well as Muslims.

The sultan -- one of the world's wealthiest men -- announced plans for the sharia penal code in 2013.

The first section was introduced in 2014 and included less stringent penalties, such as fines or jail terms for offences including indecent behaviour or skipping Friday prayers.

But the introduction of the harsher punishments in the former British protectorate of about 400,000 people was repeatedly delayed after they sparked criticism.

#UPDATE Brunei's sultan has announced that a punishment of death by stoning for gay sex and adultery will not be enforced in the sultanate after a global backlash, but critics Monday called for harsh sharia laws to be abandoned entirely. https://t.co/Pz1DSJiNjr

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 6 mei 2019