'The court's less-than-maximum sentence of 85 lashes is no act of compassion. The maximum possible sentence was 100 strokes of the cane and prosecutors had asked for 80. On Monday, 141 men were detained in a police raid on a gay sauna in Jakarta, the capital. Prejudice has been fanned by stridently anti-gay comments from politicians and Islamic hard-liners, and a case before the country's top court is seeking to criminalise gay sex and sex outside marriage. With the exception of Aceh, homosexuality is not illegal in Indonesia, but the country's low-profile LGBT community has been under siege in the past year. The Islamic Defenders Front, a hard-line group known for acts of vigilante violence throughout Indonesia, erected a banner at the mosque that declared the group was ready to defend Shariah law whatever the cost. Four heterosexual couples also were caned on Tuesday, receiving a far lesser number of strokes for affection outside marriage.īanda Aceh resident Ibrahim Muhayat said far more people attended the publicly meted-out punishment than usual because like him, many wanted to witness Indonesia's first-ever caning of gay men.
A Shariah court last week sentenced each man to 85 strokes, but they were caned 83 times after a remission for time spent in prison.
