Shariah court in Indonesia sentences 2 men to up to 85 lashes for having gay sex

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BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — An Islamic Shariah court in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province on Monday sentenced two men to public caning for having gay sex.

The couple, aged 24 and 18, were arrested on Nov. 7, after neighborhood vigilantes in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, suspected them of being gay and broke into their rented room to catch them naked and hugging each other.

The lead judge said that the two college students were “legally and convincingly” proven to have had gay sex and would receive 85 and 80 strokes respectively.

“During the trial it was proven that the defendants committed illicit acts, including kissing and having sex.“ said the judge, Sakwanah, who goes by a single name like many Indonesians. ”As Muslims, the defendants should uphold the Shariah law that prevails in Aceh,” she added.

She said the three-judge panel decided against imposing the maximum sentence of 100 lashes because the men were outstanding students who were polite in court, cooperated with authorities and had no previous convictions.

Prosecutors previously demanded each get 80 strokes, but the judges decided on a harsher punishment for the older man because they believed that he was the one who had encouraged and provided a place for sexual relations.

Both prosecutors and the lawyers for the two men said they accepted the sentence and will not appeal.

Aceh is considered more devout than other areas of Muslim-majority Indonesia and is the only province allowed to observe a version of Islamic Shariah law.

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 separatist war. A religious police and court system have been established, and the new law is a significant strengthening of Shariah in the region. Each year since then, more than 100 people have been publicly caned.

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, and allows up to 100 lashes for morality offenses including gay sex and sex between unmarried people. This will be the third time that Aceh has caned people for homosexuality.

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.

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Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.