76 lashes each... Two people were brutally beaten for having homosexual relations, uproar in this Islamic country

News Topical, Digital Desk : Two men were publicly flogged 76 times each in Indonesia's conservative province of Aceh on Tuesday after a court operating under strict Islamic law found them guilty of having sex.

Gay sex is illegal in Aceh, where the Islamic legal code Sharia is in effect. The men were part of a group of 10 who were flogged on Tuesday at a park in the provincial capital Banda Aceh for a variety of alleged offences.

Both were separately beaten with a stick in front of a small crowd. Their initial sentence of 80 lashes was reduced to four months after they were detained for four months.

Both were found in a public toilet

Roslina A. Jalil, the law enforcement chief of the Banda Aceh Sharia police, said that in April, the two men were found together in a public toilet in the same park by local Sharia police. "A commoner saw the suspects and reported it," Roslina said. Amnesty International condemned the sentence.

Same-sex conduct has no place in society: Montse Ferrer

"The criminalisation of same-sex conduct has no place in a just and humane society," Montse Ferrer, Amnesty's regional research director, said in a statement.

On Tuesday, three women and five men were also flogged after being found guilty of having extramarital sex, being intimate with members of the opposite sex and online gambling.

Caning has strong support among Aceh's people as a common punishment for crimes such as drinking alcohol and adultery. The region began using religious law after being granted special autonomy in 2001, as Jakarta sought to suppress a long-running separatist rebellion.

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