BANDA ACEH: Two men were publicly flogged 76 times each in Indonesia’s conservative province of Aceh after a court found them guilty of engaging in consensual same-sex relations under strict Islamic law.
Gay sex remains outlawed exclusively in Aceh, which enforces a local interpretation of sharia, while it is not criminalised throughout the rest of Indonesia.
The men formed part of a larger group of 10 individuals who received public caning at a park in the provincial capital for various alleged offences.
A rattan stick was used to administer the flogging separately to each man as a small crowd observed the punishment.
Their original sentences of 80 lashes each were reduced by four due to the four months they had already spent in detention prior to sentencing.
Local sharia police discovered the two men together at a public toilet within the same park where the flogging occurred back in April, according to Roslina A. Djalil, head of Banda Aceh sharia police’s law enforcement division.
“A member of the public saw suspicious people and reported it,“ Roslina stated.
Amnesty International issued a strong condemnation of the punishment in response to the event.
“The criminalisation of same-sex conduct… has no place in a just and humane society,“ Amnesty’s regional research director Montse Ferrer declared in an official statement.
Three women and five additional men also received public flogging on the same day for offences including sex outside marriage, inappropriate proximity to opposite-sex individuals, and online gambling.
Public caning maintains substantial popular support within Aceh as a standard punishment for various offences including alcohol consumption and adultery.
The region began implementing religious law after receiving special autonomy status in 2001 as part of Jakarta’s efforts to address a prolonged separatist insurgency. – AFP