1 of 2 | An Acehnese man reacts to flogging during public caning Tuesday, after being convicted of having a same-sex relationship, in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The Banda Aceh Sharia Court sentenced two men to 76 lashes in a public caning. Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that has implemented Sharia law and considers lesbian, gay, bisexual relationships and sex outside of marriage as violations of the law. Photo by Hotli Simanjuntak/EPA
Aug. 26 (UPI) — Two men were publicly caned in Indonesia Tuesday for kissing in a park.
In the city of Banda Aceh, the two men, ages 20 and 21, were convicted of “having consensual same-sex relations,” because they kissed and hugged in a Taman Sari Park bathroom on June 16. A panel of judges at the Banda Aceh Sharia Court had found them guilty of violating the Islamic Criminal Code, according to Amnesty International.
The men were held in custody during the trial, which took place behind closed doors.
While these men were sentenced to 76 strikes with canes, sometimes the courts can sentence people to up to 200 lashes. Those crimes include having consensual intimacy or sexual activity for unmarried couples, consensual sex outside marriage, same-sex sexual relations, consumption or sale of alcohol, and gambling.
Aceh, in Sumatra, is the only province in Indonesia that criminalizes consensual same-sex acts because it has special autonomy status that allows it to follow the Islamic Criminal Code since 2015. Sharia law has been in place since 2001.
There are also regular citizen’s arrests in the district. The Sharia law allows people to turn suspects over to the Sharia police.
“This public flogging of two young men under Aceh’s Islamic Criminal Code for consensual sex is a disturbing act of state-sanctioned discrimination and cruelty,” Amnesty International’s Regional Research Director Montse Ferrer said in a statement. “This punishment is a horrifying reminder of the institutionalized stigma and abuse faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in Aceh.
“Intimate relationships between consenting adults should never be criminalized. Punishments such as flogging are cruel, inhuman and degrading and may amount to torture under international law,” Ferrer said.
Ferrer called for the Indonesian government and Aceh people to immediately halt the caning practice.
“Indonesia, as a member of the UN Human Rights Council and a state party to the Convention Against Torture, must align its laws — including in Aceh — with its constitutional commitments to equality and non-discrimination. The criminalization of same-sex conduct and corporal punishment has no place in a just and humane society,” she added