Two men sentenced to public caning for gay sex in Aceh

This article is more than 12 months old

May 18, 2017 06:00 am

BANDA ACEH: A Shariah court yesterday sentenced two men to be publicly caned for gay sex for the first time in Indonesia's Aceh, the latest sign of a backlash against homosexuals in the Muslim-majority country.

The pair, aged 20 and 23, were sentenced to 85 strokes of the cane each after being found guilty of breaking Aceh's strict Islamic laws. They were caught together in bed in March by vigilantes who burst into the boarding house where they were staying in provincial capital Banda Aceh.

Presiding judge Khairil Jamal told the court that the men had been "proven legally and convincingly guilty of committing gay sex" and would be caned in public.

Aceh is the only part of Indonesia that is allowed to implement Shariah law. Gay sex is not illegal in the rest of Indonesia. - AFP