Men caned 77 times after 'being caught having sex'
-
**Men caned 77 times in Indonesia after 'being caught having sex'
Men in Aceh province were detained by vigilantes before being caned in public**
Two men in Indonesia’s Aceh province have been publicly caned 77 times each after they were reported to police by vigilantes who claimed they had witnessed the men having sex.
Human rights groups have condemned the spectacle, which was watched by dozens of people in the capital Banda Aceh, as brutal and medieval.
It was the third time that authorities have caned people for alleged gay sex acts in Aceh province, which was given the authority to implement sharia law in 2001 as part of an autonomy deal with central government.
The men, aged 27 and 29, were arrested in November after a crowd of local residents broke into their room and allegedly found them having sex. They were sentenced to 80 strokes by a Shariah court last month, but were flogged 77 times because they had spent time in prison.
The men winced in pain and pleaded for the punishment to stop as they were beaten with a rattan stick on Thursday. The mother of one man fainted as she watched, the news agency AFP reported.
Four other people received 17 strokes for extra-marital relations and 40 strokes for drinking alcohol. People caught gambling, or women who wear tight clothes can also be punished by caning.
Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Right Watch’s Asia division, said Aceh’s authorities were guilty of torture. “[The authorities] must be universally condemned for this brutal, absolutely medieval punishment for an act that should never have been criminalised in the first place,” he said.
Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, has failed to stop such abuse, he added.
Elsewhere in Indonesia, same-sex relationships are not illegal, though LGBTQ+ communities have faced worsening discrimination over recent years, and are increasingly targeted by police under a pornography law that campaigners say is discriminatory.
-
Just too sad, maddening, and horrific. There are still places this results in death.
Plenty of the laws and wrongs are likely perpetuated by others who cannot accept themselves having similar feelings and thoughts.
-
@fun17
Sharia law does not require evidence, at least not as we know it in the US."Revenge" accusations are not uncommon - all it takes is to get a few citizens "in good standing" to attest that someone has broken the code, and they will be punished - severely.
There is nothing in place to stop a "band of queers" - gay men and women who have not yet been "outed" - from making accusations against the leaders of these vigilante groups - and not only shaming them (by making accusations), but also stripping them of their "power" by marking them as accused.
My point is not that this should be done! No, rather to point out that this kind of "law enforcement" is RIFE with abuse and false accusations. It fell to the wayside CENTURIES ago, not because people stopped believing in their religion, or became less pious - but because this "system" is deeply flawed, unjust, and totally unreliable as a way to enforce the law.
