Indonesia s Aceh province publicly canes two men for same sex relationship

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Two men were publicly flogged in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province on Feb 27 after they were found guilty of sexual relations by a court operating under strict Islamic law.

While gay sex is not illegal elsewhere in Indonesia – the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation – it is outlawed in Aceh, which imposes a version of syariah, the Islamic legal code.

The flogging began before midday at a park in provincial capital Banda Aceh, with one man accused of instigating the relationship lashed 82 times and the second man 77 times.

Both were caned with a rattan stick as dozens watched on, according to an AFP journalist present.

The men’s sentences were reduced by three lashes for three months spent in detention.

In November, locals raided a rented room in Banda Aceh and found the two men – both students at a local university – together.

They were taken to syariah police for the alleged crime of sexual relations.

Rights advocates slammed the punishment as part of a wider trend of discrimination against LGBTQ people in the country.

“The intimidation, discrimination and abuses against LGBTQ individuals in Aceh are like a bottomless well,” Mr Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch, told 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 two 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 in a statement.

Two other men were flogged at the same park 34 and eight times respectively on Feb 27 for online gambling, according to prosecutors.

Medical services were on standby for all