By YAYAN ZAMZAMI
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — Two men in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province were publicly caned Thursday after an Islamic Shariah court convicted them for having sex with each other.
Dozens of people witnessed the caning at a hall in Banda Aceh’s Bustanussalatin city park. It’s the fourth time that Aceh, the only province in Indonesia to practice Shariah law, has caned people for homosexuality since the Islamic law was implemented in 2006 as a concession made by the government to end a long-running separatist rebellion.
The men, aged 24 and 18, were whipped across the back dozens of times by a team of five enforcers wearing robes and hoods. They were given a break to drink after 20 strokes and their wounds were treated.
The men were arrested in November after residents suspected them of being gay and broke into their rented room, where they were caught naked and hugging each other, and took them to Sharia police.
A Shariah court on Monday sentenced the two college students to receive 85 and 80 strokes respectively, but they were caned 82 and 77 times after a remission for time spent in prison. One of the men had to be carried because he was too weak to move after the last lash.
Two other people were also sentenced to 34 and 8 strokes each for gambling.
Indonesia’s secular central government granted Aceh the right to implement Islamic Shariah law in 2006 as part of a peace deal to end a decades-long separatist war. A religious police and court system have been established, and the law was a significant strengthening of Shariah in the region.
Aceh implemented an expansion of Islamic bylaws and criminal code in 2015 that extended Shariah law to the province’s non-Muslims, who account for about 1% of the population. The region allows up to 100 lashes for morality offenses including gay sex and sex between unmarried people.
Caning is also a punishment in Aceh for gambling, drinking alcohol, women who wear tight clothes and men who skip Friday prayers.
Human rights groups have criticized the law, saying it violates international treaties signed by Indonesia protecting the rights of minorities.
Indonesia’s national criminal code doesn’t regulate homosexuality, and the central government doesn’t have the power to strike down Shariah law in Aceh. However, an earlier version of the law that called for people to be stoned to death for adultery was dropped because of pressure from the central government.
Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.
