Indonesia’s Aceh province has been caning people at the rate of nearly one per day for Sharia violations; this is punishment for “crimes” that range from adultery to gambling and to a young woman merely standing too close to her boyfriend.
The gay couple was beaten by spying vigilantes and turned over to religious police after having their privacy violated and being recorded. Minor breaches result in a public caning in Aceh. One can only imagine the possible fate of this pair. Human Rights Watch has called on the Indonesian government to release them.
There are many Muslim countries where the death penalty for gays is still the law and is actively enforced. They include Mauritania, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan and the UAE.
“Indonesian gay couple beaten on video before vigilantes hand them over to religious police”, by Jon Sharman, Independent, April 14, 2017:
Video captures the moment two gay men are assaulted by Indonesian vigilantes who caught them having sex and then turned them over to religious police.
The shaky footage appears to show a young man covering his head while talking on the phone, before he is struck and rocks backwards on a bed.
One of the intruders can be heard shouting in the clip as the naked man cowers.
The pair are to go on trial in an Islamic court for having gay sex and could receive 100 strokes of the cane if found guilty, officials in the conservative province of Aceh said, sparking calls for their release.
Aceh is the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia that criminalises same-sex relations and that uses sharia as its legal code in addition to the national criminal code.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Indonesia to release the men, who were detained last month.
“These men had their privacy invaded in a frightening and humiliating manner and now face public torture for the ‘crime’ of their alleged sexual orientation,” HRW’s Phelim Kine said earlier this week.
In 2014, Aceh enacted a law that punishes anybody caught engaging in consensual gay sex with 100 lashes, 100 months in jail or a fine of 1,000 grams of gold.
It also sets out punishment for sex crimes, unmarried people engaging in displays of affection, adulterous relationships and underage sex.
Authorities in the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island caned 339 people in 2016….