Two men were publicly flogged in Indonesia’s conservative province of Aceh on Tuesday, August 26, after a Sharia court found them guilty of engaging in gay sex. Each man received 76 lashes with a rattan stick during the public caning. The initial sentence of 80 lashes was reduced for both men, accounting for the four months they spent in custody. The punishment took place at a park in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, with a crowd observing the caning. Homosexual acts are illegal under the version of Islamic law, or Sharia, that is enforced in Aceh. However, these acts are not criminalised in other parts of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country. The two men were part of a larger group of ten individuals who were publicly caned for various alleged offences on the same day. In April local sharia police found the two men together at a public toilet in the same park where they were later flogged, said Roslina A. Djalil, head of Banda Aceh sharia police’s law enforcement.

Full report : Indonesian Sharia Court Publicly Flogs Two Men For Gay Sex As Crowd Films Torture.