A Shariah court in Indonesia’s Aceh province sentenced two men to public caning after neighbourhood vigilantes caught them having gay sex in a rented room.
The court found them guilty and sentenced them to 85 and 80 lashes, with the older man receiving a harsher punishment for allegedly facilitating the act.
Dozens of people watched as the men, aged 24 and 18, were publicly caned in Banda Aceh’s Bustanussalatin city park for engaging in gay sex. The punishment, carried out by five enforcers in robes and hoods, involved lashes across their backs with breaks for water and medical treatment after 20 strokes, media reports said.
This was the fourth time Aceh had flogged people for homosexuality since implementing Shariah law in 2006 under a peace deal to end a separatist rebellion.
The two college students were arrested last November after neighbours, suspected them of being gay, broke into their rented room and found them naked and hugging.
An Islamic Shariah court sentenced them to 85 and 80 lashes, but they received 82 and 77 strokes after a remission for time served. One of the men was so weak after the final lash he reportedly had to be carried.
Two other individuals were sentenced to 34 and 8 lashes, respectively, for gambling.
Rights groups condemned the punishments.
The “intimidation, discrimination and abuses” against LGBTQIA+ people in Aceh was “like a bottomless well”, Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch was quoted as saying by AFP.
“The Aceh government should learn from these mistakes and review their Islamic criminal code.”
Amnesty International called the punishment a “horrifying act of discrimination” against the men.
“Intimate sexual relations between consenting adults should never be criminalised, and no one should be punished because of their real or perceived sexual orientation,” Amnesty’s deputy regional director Montse Ferrer said.
Additional reporting by agencies.
