Gay men, adulterers publicly flogged in Indonesia

Jakarta, July 14 (IANS) Some 15 people including women accused for being gay or committing adultery were publicly flogged in indonesia's Aceh province.

Two men accused of being gay received 87 lashes each, while nine others were sentenced up to 26 lashes for adultery. Four people, one of whom is female, were lashed 27 times for being drunk, reports CNN.

Carried out after Friday prayers, the flogging was attended by hundreds of spectators, including children, outside the Baiturrahim Mosque in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.

In a video, people can be heard jeering as the detainees, who are wearing white, traditional shirts, are brought up to the scaffold in front of the mosque.

Others took cellphone video of the punishment being administered by a hooded man while a voice counts the strokes over a loudspeaker. At one point a uniformed official appears to instruct the masked whipper where to land the blow.

Prior to the sentences being carried out, the detainees were given health checks and declared strong enough to undergo the punishment.

Earlier this year the governor of the province, Irwandi Yusuf, decreed that corporal sentences be carried out within the city's prison. 

However, the head of Banda Aceh's religious police, Muhammad Hidayat, said Friday's sentences were carried out publicly because of a lack of detailed instructions concerning the decree.

Irwandi was arrested earlier this month for alleged corruption, according to Indonesian state media. 

Unlike the rest of Indonesia, Aceh province follows strict Islamic laws, which make sexual activity outside marriage and same-sex relations illegal, CNN reported.

The state's Sharia criminal code went into effect in September 2015. 

It is the only one of Indonesia's 34 provinces that can legally implement Sharia, according to rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

In May, two men were flogged for homosexuality, 83 times each.