This is the moment two gay men grimaced in agony as they were brutally whipped in public over their same-sex relations in Aceh, Indonesia.
They were flogged 76 times each in the conservative province after they were found guilty of sexual relations by a court operating under strict Islamic law.
Gay sex is outlawed in Aceh, which imposes a version of sharia, the Islamic legal code, but it is not illegal elsewhere in the world’s most populous Muslim majority country.
The men were part of a group of 10 who were flogged on Tuesday at a park in the provincial capital for a range of alleged crimes.
The pair were flogged separately with a rattan stick as a small crowd watched, according to an AFP journalist present.
Their initial sentences of 80 lashes each were reduced by four for four months spent in detention.
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.
‘A member of the public saw suspicious people and reported it,’ Roslina said.
Amnesty International condemned the punishment. In a statement, its regional research director, Montse Ferrer, said: ‘This public flogging of two young men under Aceh’s Islamic Criminal Code for consensual sex is a disturbing act of state-sanctioned discrimination and cruelty.
‘This punishment is a horrifying reminder of the institutionalised stigma and abuse faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in Aceh.’
The statement added: ‘We call on the Acehnese and Indonesian central government authorities to immediately halt these degrading practices and repeal all discriminatory bylaws that permit such violations.
‘Aceh’s regional autonomy must not come at the expense of human rights.’
Three women and five men were also flogged on Tuesday after being found guilty of sex outside marriage, being in close proximity to members of the opposite sex, and online gambling.
Caning retains strong support among Aceh’s population as a common punishment for offences including drinking alcohol and adultery.
The region started using religious law after it was granted special autonomy in 2001 as Jakarta tried to quell a long-running separatist insurgency.
In February, two gay men aged 24 and 18 were flogged in the same area.
Their flogging was witnessed by several people and was the fourth time men had been beaten for homosexuality.
They were lashed several times on their backs and were only given breaks after 20 minutes to drink water and have their wounds treated.
After the last lash, one of the men had to be carried away as they could not move.
In Aceh, caning is used as a punishment for adultery, women who wear tight clothes, drinking alcohol, and not attending Friday prayers.
