Trans woman killers not prosecuted for murder, "it was not their intention"

The murderers of an Indonesian trans woman who was doused in gasoline and burned will not be prosecuted for murder. Instead, they are charged with physical assault, because the suspects “had no intention of burning her”. Amnesty International has called on the Indonesian authorities to investigate the murder of the trans woman in question.
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Indonesian police have arrested three suspects. They are not charged with murder, as the suspects "had no intention of burning her." Still, the woman was doused in gasoline and a spokesperson confirmed to Reuters that one of the suspects even lit a match. For the current indictment, physical violence, a suspect can be sentenced up to 12 years in prison.

''It would not be the first time that LGBTI people in Indonesia have been violently targeted simply for who they are.” Usman Ham, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, explains in a press release. “The authorities must also take this appalling murder as a wake-up call and repeal its laws that criminalize specific gender identities.”

The situation for LGBT+ people has been deteriorating in Indonesia for some time. Several LGBT+ rights have been violated in recent years. In the province of Aceh, for example, gays are punished with canes. The Indonesian president also wanted to introduce a law that banned premarital sex, which in principle would make sex with someone of the same gender illegal by default seeing as same-sex couples cannot get married.

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