San Francisco Chronicle

Caning sentence for men in gay sex

- By Jon Emont Jon Emont is a New York Times writer.

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Two men accused of having sex with each other were each sentenced Wednesday to 85 lashes in public, the first case of people being punished for homosexual­ity in the Indonesian province of Aceh under a strict version of Shariah law.

The sentences alarmed rights activists, who called the punishment excessive and a dangerous turn of events in Aceh, a semiautono­mous province that has imposed a strict version of Shariah, the legal code of Islam.

News reports said that vigilantes had caught the two men naked in bed and that the two had pleaded not to be reported to the Shariah police. The two were then beaten, an attack recorded on video, and were later taken to a local police station.

“So you don’t like women? Not interested in them anymore?” Marzuki Ali, chief investigat­or for the Shariah police, asked the men, ages 20 and 23, shortly after they were taken to the police station in March. Cameras recorded his comments.

According to an annual report on state-sponsored homophobia, compiled by the Internatio­nal Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatio­n, homosexual­ity is effectivel­y a crime in 72 countries.

In three — Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen — it is codified as a crime punishable by death, though executions are rare. In five other countries — Afghanista­n, Mauritania, Pakistan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — a death penalty for homosexual­ity is codified under Shariah law, but it has not been put into practice.

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