Two men were publicly flogged in Indonesia's conservative province of Aceh on Tuesday, August 26, after a Sharia court found them guilty of engaging in gay sex. Each man received 76 lashes with a rattan stick during the public caning.
The initial sentence of 80 lashes was reduced for both men, accounting for the four months they spent in custody. The punishment took place at a park in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, with a crowd observing the caning.
Homosexual acts are illegal under the version of Islamic law, or Sharia, that is enforced in Aceh. However, these acts are not criminalised in other parts of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country. The two men were part of a larger group of ten individuals who were publicly caned for various alleged offences on the same day.
In April local sharia police found the two men together at a public toilet in the same park where they were later flogged, said Roslina A. Djalil, head of Banda Aceh sharia police's law enforcement.
"A member of the public saw suspicious people and reported it," Roslina said.
Amnesty International condemned the punishment.
"The criminalisation of same-sex conduct... has no place in a just and humane society," Amnesty's regional research director Montse Ferrer said in a statement.
Three women and five men were also flogged Tuesday after being found guilty of sex outside marriage, being in close proximity to members of the opposite sex, and online gambling.
Caning retains strong support among Aceh's population as a common punishment for offences including drinking alcohol and adultery.
The region started using religious law after it was granted special autonomy in 2001 as Jakarta tried to quell a long-running separatist insurgency.
(With inputs from AFP)
