Two men in Indonesia were publicly flogged 77 times for allegedly having sex, while around 100 people witnessed the beating. According to Amnesty International, the men were arrested last November in Aceh after local residents reported them to the municipal police for allegedly having sex in a rented room. Aceh is the only province of Indonesia where floggings take place, with at least 254 people flogged last year.
52 floggings have been conducted after the Covid-19 outbreak began in Indonesia, and so far eight people have already been subjected to the extreme form of punishment this year. Two men were flogged 40 times each for consuming alcohol, while a man and a woman were flogged 17 times each for having sexual relations outside of marriage. Under international human rights law, all forms of corporal punishment are prohibited, and consensual sexual relationships should not be treated as a criminal offence.
Usman Hamid, Amnesty International Indonesia’s executive director, condemned the Aceh authorities who committed the flogging, saying: “No-one deserves to be brutalised and humiliated in this way. The fact that the flogging was conducted in front of a large crowd of people in the midst of an escalating Covid-19 outbreak shows the distorted priorities of the Aceh authorities. Flogging constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and can amount to torture.”
He continued: “Targeting and criminalising people because of their real or perceived sexual orientation is inhumane. We strongly urge both the Aceh and central government authorities to take immediate action to halt this cruel practice and revoke the bylaws that allow them to take place.”
