(CNN)Indonesian President Joko Widodo has postponed a vote that could have criminalized consensual extramarital sex after outcry from human rights groups worldwide.
The vote would have been on a new penal code, which the government agreed on last week. The code was set to pass into law on Tuesday, with lawmakers describing the vote as a formality. The code would also have effectively outlawed same-sex relations and made it a criminal offense to insult the president.
In a televised address on Friday, Widodo said he decided to postpone the vote after “seriously considering feedback from different parties who feel objections on some substantial content of the criminal code.”
