An Islamic court in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province on Monday, August 11 sentenced two college students to 80 lashes each in public after they were found guilty of engaging in same-sex acts.
The Banda Aceh Sharia Court ruled that the men, aged 20 and 21, had violated Islamic law after religious police caught them kissing and hugging in a public park bathroom in April. The trial was held behind closed doors, with the verdict announced publicly
Chief Judge Rokhmadi M. Hum said the men were “legally and convincingly” proven to have committed acts leading to homosexual relations. The court did not disclose their identities.
Prosecutors had sought 85 strokes, but the three-judge panel reduced the sentence, citing the defendants’ cooperation, politeness in court, lack of prior convictions, and status as “outstanding students.” Four lashes will be deducted from the punishment to account for the four months they have already spent in detention.
Aceh is the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia allowed to enforce a form of Islamic law under a 2006 peace deal that ended a separatist conflict. Its Sharia code prescribes up to 100 lashes for moral offenses, including same-sex relations, adultery, gambling, drinking, and certain dress code violations.
Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned Aceh’s caning punishments, calling them a violation of international human rights treaties signed by Indonesia. The country’s national criminal code does not criminalize homosexuality.
Monday’s ruling marks the fifth time Aceh has sentenced people to public caning for homosexuality since its Islamic law took effect in 2015.