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Shocking video showing two gay men being slapped by vigilantes who broke into their home before handing them over to police has sparked international condemnation.
The men, both in their 20s, are being detained in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, where they could face 100 lashes for having homosexual relations.
The footage shows one of the distressed men, who was completely naked, speaking to his family on a phone, while telling one of the vigilantes: ‘Please brother, please stop.’
The were taken to Wilayatul Hisbah, a Sharia police facility, after their arrest on March 28. They have been identified by the initials HB, and were reportedly in the room of HB to have sex.
Phelim Kine, deputy Asia division director at Human Right Watch, said after the video was shared around the world: ‘These men had their privacy invaded in a frightening and humiliating manner and now face public torture for the ‘crime’ of their alleged sexual orientation.’
Kine said it demonstrates the ‘abuse’ embedded in anti-LGBT laws in the province of Aceh, where members of the public are encouraged to enforced strict Islamic laws.
The region has since 2001 been allowed by the Indonesian government to adopt bylaws which criminalise homosexuality as well as punishing women who do not cover their bodies.
Alcohol, gambling and extramarital relations are also banned in the region, and human rights groups have hit out at Banda Aceh’s mayor, Illiza Sa’aduddin, who last year said she would create a team to tackle the ‘threat’ of LGBT people.
In 2014, Aceh introduced a law which punishes anybody caught engaging in consensual gay sex with 100 lashes, 100 months in jail or a fine of 1,000 grams of gold.
It also sets out punishment for sex crimes, unmarried people engaging in displays of affection, adulterous relationships and underage sex.
Authorities in the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island caned 339 people in 2016 for a range of crimes, according to HRW.
The Indonesian government has yet to respond to a letter from the United Nations, written in April last year, expressing concerns about the abuse of LGBT people in Aceh.
Last October, president Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo said police must defend the country’s LGBT population, but Human Rights Watch has accused him of inaction since.
Kine said after the latest arrest: ‘President Jokowi should urgently intervene is this case to demonstrate his stated commitment to ending discrimination against LGBT people.
‘Jokowi then needs to act to eliminate Aceh’s discriminatory ordinances so these outrageous arrests don’t happen again.’
Aceh is the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia that criminalises same-sex relations and that uses sharia as its legal code in addition to the national criminal code.
‘The case has been sent to the sharia court of Aceh… It involves sodomy which can be punished by 100 lashes,’ Marzuki, head of investigations with Aceh’s religious police, said on Monday.
watch the video below
