BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (BN24)— An Islamic court in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province has sentenced two college students to 80 public lashes for engaging in same-sex acts, officials announced Monday.
The Banda Aceh Sharia Court found the men, aged 20 and 21, guilty of violating Islamic law after religious police detained them in April for kissing and hugging in a public park bathroom. The trial was held behind closed doors, with the verdict delivered publicly on Aug. 11.
Chief Judge Rokhmadi M. Hum said the defendants were “legally and convincingly” proven to have committed acts leading to homosexual relations. Their identities were not disclosed.
Prosecutors had sought 85 strokes, but the three-judge panel reduced the sentence, citing the men’s cooperation, good conduct during proceedings, lack of prior convictions, and status as “outstanding students.” Four lashes will be deducted from the total to account for four months they have spent in detention.
Aceh is the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia permitted to enforce Sharia law under a 2006 peace agreement that ended a separatist insurgency. Its Islamic code allows up to 100 lashes for moral offenses such as same-sex relations, adultery, gambling, alcohol consumption, and certain dress code violations.
Human rights organizations have repeatedly criticized Aceh’s public caning punishments as violations of international human rights conventions ratified by Indonesia. The country’s national criminal code does not criminalize homosexuality.
Monday’s ruling marks the fifth public flogging for homosexuality in Aceh since the province’s Islamic law came into effect in 2015.
