Banda Aceh – A sharia court in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province has sentenced two gay men to public caning, further undermining the country's moderate image after a Christian politician was imprisoned for blasphemy.
The court said the men, aged 20 and 23, would each be subjected to 85 lashes for having sexual relations.
One of the men cried as his sentence was read out and pleaded for leniency. The chief prosecutor, Gulmaini, who goes by one name, said they would be caned next week, before Ramadan starts on about 25 May.
The sentencing on Wednesday coincided with the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.
The men were arrested in late March after neighbourhood vigilantes in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, broke into their rented room to catch them having sex.
Mobile phone footage that circulated online and formed part of the evidence shows one of the men naked and visibly distressed as he apparently calls for help on his phone. The second man is repeatedly pushed by another man who is preventing the couple from leaving the room.
The lead judge, Khairil Jamal, said the men were "legally and convincingly proven to have committed gay sex".
He said the three-judge panel decided against imposing the maximum sentence of 100 lashes because the men were polite in court, cooperated with authorities and had no previous convictions. "As Muslims, the defendants should uphold the sharia law that prevails in Aceh," Jamal said.
International human rights groups have described the treatment of the men as abusive and humiliating and called for their immediate release. Human Rights Watch said in April that public caning would constitute torture under international law.
Indonesia's reputation for practising a moderate form of Islam has been battered in the past year as a result of attacks on religious minorities, a surge in the persecution of gay people and a polarising election campaign for governor of the capital, Jakarta, that highlighted the growing strength of hardline Islamic groups.
This month the outgoing Jakarta governor, Ahok, was sentenced to two years in prison for campaign comments deemed as blaspheming the Qur'an. The sentence was tougher than that sought by prosecutors, who had downgraded the charge from blasphemy and asked for two years' probation.
Aceh is the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia allowed to practise sharia law, which was a concession made by the national government in 2006 to end a war with separatists, but some other areas have introduced sharia-style bylaws.
Aceh implemented an expanded Islamic criminal code two years ago that allows up to 100 lashes for morality offences including gay sex.
Caning is also a punishment for adultery, gambling, drinking alcohol, women who wear tight clothes and men who miss Friday prayers. More than 300 people were caned for such offences last year.