Indonesian court sentences two gay men to public caning | World... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/17/indonesian-cour...

Indonesian court sentences two gay men to

public caning
Countrys moderate image undermined as human rights groups criticise treatment of
men as abusive and humiliating

Two Indonesian men arrive for their trials at a sharia court in Banda Aceh. Photograph: Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP/Getty
Images

Associated Press in Banda Aceh

Wednesday 17 May 2017 09.11BST

A sharia court in Indonesias conservative Aceh province has sentenced two gay men to
public caning, further undermining the countrys 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

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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.

Indonesias 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 Quran. 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 oences 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 oences last year.

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Topics
Indonesia
Asia Pacic/news

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