Two gay men were publicly caned 77 times this week in Indonesia's Aceh province, where extremist Sharia Law is observed.
The Guardian reports: “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 being gay 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 BBC reports: “The two men, aged 27 and 29, winced in pain as they were whipped by robed and masked enforcers who lashed the men on their backs with a rattan stick. The punishment was briefly halted and the men, both in their twenties, were allowed a drink of water before it continued, the AFP news agency reports. The mother of one man fainted at the sight of her son being whipped.”
