Two men who were Christians were publicly flogged Monday in Indonesia’s ultra-conservative Aceh province for drinking alcohol and gambling. This was considered a rare instance of non-Muslims facing a punishment frequently condemned by rights groups.
The caning comes less than two weeks after a male couple was flogged nearly 80 times each for having gay sex, which is outlawed under local Islamic law.
The two accused Christians received 40 lashes each from a masked sharia officer who beat their backs with a stick.
One of them, identified only as JF, said he chose to be flogged so as to avoid a criminal prosecution that could have landed him in jail for up to six months.
“The Sharia police gave us options and we consciously decided to comply with the Islamic criminal code. No one forced me to choose it,” he told AFP.
Aceh is the only province in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country that imposes Islamic law.
Non-Muslims who have committed an offence that violates both national and religious laws can choose to be prosecuted under either system.
Flogging of non-Muslims is rare, however, with only a handful subjected to the punishment in recent years for crimes including gambling and selling alcohol.
The current president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo has also called for such public canings to end. Current human rights groups have also slammed such public punishments as cruel.