Two men publicly flogged in Indonesia for violating Sharia laws by hugging and kissing

They were convicted of violating Islamic law for having a consensual same-sex relationship.

An audience of about 100 people witnessed the caning on a stage in Bustanussalatin city park in Banda Aceh on Tuesday, reported CBS News.

According to reports, the two men are aged 20 and 21.

They were beaten up on their backs with a rattan cane dozens of times by a group of people wearing robes and hoods.

Apart from them, eight others were also caned for performing adultery and gambling.

As per Amnesty International's website, citizen’s arrests are common in Aceh due to the implementation of Sharia law, which allows residents to turn people over to the Sharia police for investigation.

Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that criminalises consensual same-sex acts due to the special autonomy status that has allowed it to apply the Islamic Criminal Code since 2015.

Sharia bylaws have been in force in Aceh since the enactment of the province’s Special Autonomy Law in 2001 and are enforced by Islamic courts.

These laws in some cases provide for up to 200 lashes as punishment for offences including consensual intimacy or sexual activity for unmarried couples, consensual sex outside marriage, same-sex sexual relations, the consumption and sale of alcohol and gambling.

Responding to today’s caning of two men in the city of Banda Aceh for having consensual same-sex sexual relations, Amnesty International’s Regional Research Director Montse Ferrer said: "This public flogging of two young men under Aceh’s Islamic Criminal Code for consensual sex is a disturbing act of state-sanctioned discrimination and cruelty. This punishment is a horrifying reminder of the institutionalized stigma and abuse faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in Aceh."

“Intimate relationships between consenting adults should never be criminalized. Punishments such as flogging are cruel, inhuman and degrading and may amount to torture under international law," Ferrer said.