Gay couple sentenced to public caning by Indonesian sharia court

A gay couple have been sentenced to a public caning after a sharia court in Indonesia ruled that they should be lashed for having had sexual relations.

The men, aged 20 and 23, will each be subjected to 85 lashes next week in a move that has been branded "abusive" and "humiliating" by international human rights groups.

The pair were sentenced in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province - the only area in the country allowed to practice sharia law - where courts can elect to give up to 100 lashes for "morality offences" including gay sex and sex between unmarried people.

It is reportedly the first time a sharia court in Aceh has used its sentencing powers in this way, although caning is also used as a punishment in the area for gambling, drinking alcohol, women who wear tight clothes and men who skip Friday prayers.

The couple, who have not been named, were arrested in late March after neighbourhood vigilantes in the province's capital of Banda suspected them of being gay and broke into a room that they had rented to catch them having sex.

Lead judge, Khairil Jamal, said while sentencing that the men were "legally and convincingly proven to have committed gay sex" and that they could have been given 100 lashes for the alleged crime but were given a more lenient sentencing as they were both polite to the court.

"As Muslims, the defendants should uphold the sharia law that prevails in Aceh", he added.

Human rights groups have warned Indonesia that public caning would constitute torture under international law and have called for the immediate release of the two men.

Indonesia researcher for Human Rights Watch, Andreas Harsono, said: "The prosecution is very harsh. The verdict is harsher [and] it shows the increasingly conservative judiciary in Indonesia."

Homosexuality is not illegal anywhere else in Indonesia but a case before the country's top court is seeking to criminalise gay sex and sex outside marriage.