Indonesia castration law 'will wipe out paedophilia' - President Joko Widodo

Indonesia's new law authorising chemical castration "will wipe out" sex crimes including paedophilia, President Joko Widodo said in an interview with the BBC on Tuesday. 

The laws were passed earlier this month after a proposal from the government, approving harsher penalties for perpetrators of sexual violence against children.

"Our constitution respects human rights, but when it comes to sexual crimes there is no compromise," President Widodo said.

"We are strong and we will be very firm. We will hand out the maximum penalty for sexual crimes,” he said, adding: "In my opinion … chemical castration, if we enforce it consistently, will reduce sex crimes and wipe them out over time."

Penalties under the new law include death as a maximum sentence and chemical castration, with a possible addition of a two-year maximum jail sentence.

President Jokowi signed the proposed regulation in May, after activists and the public called for reform in the wake of the brutal gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old-school girl in Bengkulu, on the western island of Sumatra, in April.