Islamic court in Indonesia sentences two men to public caning over homosexual acts

An Islamic court in Indonesia's western Aceh province sentenced two men to public caning on Monday, after Islamic religious police caught them engaged in what the court deemed were sexual acts.

The trial at the Islamic Shariah District Court in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, was held behind closed doors.

Judges have the authority to limit public access in such a case and open it only for the verdict.

The two men, aged 20 and 21, were arrested in April after residents saw them entering the same bathroom at Taman Sari city park and reported it to police patrolling the area.

The police broke into the toilet and caught the men kissing and hugging, which the court considered a sexual act.

The lead judge, Rokhmadi M. Hum, said the two college students were "legally and convincingly" proven to have violated Islamic law by committing acts that lead to gay sexual relations.

The court didn't publicly identify the men.

Prosecutors previously sought 85 strokes of the cane for each of the men, but the three-judge panel decided on what they described as lenient punishment because the men were outstanding students who were polite in court, cooperated with authorities and had no previous convictions.

The judges also ordered the time they have served to be deducted from their sentence. It means the number of lashes will be reduced by four as they have been detained for four months.

The prosecutor, Alfian, who like many Indonesians uses only a single name, said he was not satisfied with the lighter sentence, but said he will not appeal.

Aceh is the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia allowed to observe a version of Islamic law.

It allows up to 100 lashes for morality offenses including gay sex. Caning is also punishment for adultery, gambling, drinking and for women who wear tight clothes and men who skip Friday prayers.

Indonesia’s secular central government granted Aceh the right to implement the law in 2006 as part of a peace deal to end a separatist war.

Aceh implemented an expansion in 2015 that extended the law to non-Muslims, who account for about 1% of the province's population.

Human rights groups have criticised the law, saying it violates international treaties signed by Indonesia protecting the rights of minorities. Indonesia's national criminal code doesn’t regulate homosexuality.

Monday’s verdict was the fifth time that Aceh has sentenced people to public caning for homosexuality since the Islamic law was implemented.

In February, the same court sentenced two men to public caning for gay sex after neighbourhood vigilantes in Banda Aceh suspected them of being gay and broke into their rented room and caught them naked and hugging each other.