Two Gay Men Face 85 Lashes After Getting Brutally Beaten by Vigilantes in Indonesia

Vigilantes stormed into a boarding house in Indonesia where two gay men are found to be naked and in bed together back in March. While filming, the thugs hurled insults, kicked and slapped the pair, aged 20 and 23, who laid naked on the ground, taking the beating.

The gay couple is now facing a sentence of 85 lashes after being found guilty of breaking sharia law in Aceh Province, an ultra-conservative part of the nation which strictly enforces Islamic regulations.

A disturbing video which showed the brutal beating the vigilantes brought to the helpless men, is now circulating online, Daily Mail reports.

Local authorities of the provincial capital Banda Aceh arrested the couple following the incident. Upon questioning, they admitted they were in a relationship and had sexual activities three times.

Judge Khairil Jamal, who presided the proceedings at Banda Aceh court, reportedly pronounced that the men had been “proven legally and convincingly guilty of committing gay sex, the defendants are sentenced to 85 strokes of the cane in public.”

The verdict increased the 80 lashes the prosecutors recommended. The men, whose names were withheld from the reports, covered their faces and bowed their heads throughout the hearing.

When the judge asked if they accepted the verdict, one simply nodded without speaking while the other softly responded with: “Please reduce my sentence.”

“This is an ordeal for our family,” the father of one of the accused was quoted as saying. “After this problem is resolved, we will send him to an Islamic boarding school to be educated so he won’t be deviant anymore.”

He said he did not know his son was gay prior being caught.

Aceh, being the only province in the country which implements Sharia law, enacted a local law in 2015 that punishes people for having gay sex with up to 100 strokes of the cane. Gay sex is not illegal in the rest of Indonesia.

Images via Reuters / YouTube

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