Islamic Shariah court in Indonesia's Aceh province sentences 2 men to public caning over sexual acts
The trial at the Islamic Shariah District Court in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, was held behind closed doors. Judges have the authority to limit public access to a trial if the case relates to adultery and open it only for the verdict.
The couple, aged 20 and 21, were arrested in April after residents saw them entering the same bathroom at Taman Sari city park in Banda Aceh and reported it to Sharia police, who were patrolling the area. The police broke into the toilet and caught the men kissing and hugging each other, which the court considered to be a sexual act.
Aceh is considered more devout than other areas of Muslim-majority Indonesia and is the only province allowed to observe a version of Islamic Shariah law.
Monday's verdict was the fifth time that Aceh has sentenced people to public caning for homosexuality since the Islamic law was implemented in 2015 as a concession made by the government to end a long-running separatist rebellion.
Indonesia's national criminal code doesn't regulate homosexuality, and the central government doesn't have the power to strike down Shariah law in Aceh.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Some Florida officers are continuing to charge people under halted immigration law
FILE - Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier speaks during a meeting between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state cabinet at the Florida capitol in Tallahassee, Fla., Wednesday, March 5, 2025. Rebecca Blackwell/AP TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Some law enforcement officers are continuing to charge people under a Florida law that bans people living in the U.S. illegally from entering the state, even though a federal judge has halted enforcement of the law while it's challenged in court. Two more people were arrested and charged under the law in July, according to a report Florida's attorney general is required to file as punishment for defying the judge's ruling. Both men were arrested by a sheriff's officer in Sarasota County, located on the state's southwest coast. The charges came months after U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami first halted enforcement of the state statute, which makes it a misdemeanor for people who are in the U.S. without legal permission to enter Florida by eluding immigration officials. Advertisement Article continues below this ad As punishment for flouting her order and being found in civil contempt, the judge required Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier to file bimonthly reports about whether any arrests, detentions or law enforcement actions have been made under the law. In separate incidents on July 3 and July 28, the men were each charged with driving without a valid license and offenses related to driving under the influence of alcohol. The State Attorney's Office for the 12th Judicial Circuit dismissed the illegal entry charges against them, and requested that the sheriff's office advice the arresting officer of the court's order halting enforcement of the law, according to the status report. A spokesperson for Uthmeier did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a separate court filing, immigrants' rights advocates who filed the lawsuit questioned whether state officials are using the blocked law to justify holding detainees at an isolated immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz.' Attorneys for the advocates provided the court an email apparently sent by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement employee to the offices of members of Congress, stating that Florida officials are relying on legal authority granted by the blocked law. Advertisement Article continues below this ad 'ICE's email raises serious concerns about potential violations of the Court's injunction on a large scale,' attorneys for the immigrants' rights groups wrote, asking the court to order the state to explain under what legal authority it's holding people at the Everglades facility. ___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Islamic court in Indonesia sentences 2 men to public caning over sexual acts: kissing and hugging
Islamic court in Indonesia sentences 2 men to public caning over sexual acts: kissing and hugging BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — An Islamic court in Indonesia 's conservative Aceh province on Monday sentenced two men to public caning, 80 times each, after Islamic religious police caught them engaged in what the court deemed were sexual acts: hugging and kissing. The trial at the Islamic Shariah District Court in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, was held behind closed doors. Judges have the authority to limit public access in such a case and open it only for the verdict. The two men, aged 20 and 21, were arrested in April after residents saw them entering the same bathroom at Taman Sari city park and reported it to police patrolling the area. The police broke into the toilet and caught the men kissing and hugging, which the court considered to be a sexual act. The lead judge, Rokhmadi M. Hum, said the two college students were 'legally and convincingly' proven to have violated Islamic law by committing acts that lead to gay sexual relations. The court didn't publicly identify the men. Prosecutors previously sought 85 strokes of the cane for each, but the three-judge panel decided on what they described as lenient punishment because the men were outstanding students who were polite in court, cooperated with authorities and had no previous convictions. The judges also ordered the time they have served to be deducted from their sentence. It means the number of lashes will be reduced by four as they have been detained for four months. The prosecutor, Alfian, who like many Indonesians uses only a single name, said he was not satisfied with the lighter sentence. But he said he will not appeal. Aceh is the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia allowed to observe a version of Islamic law. It allows up to 100 lashes for morality offenses including gay sex. Caning is also punishment for adultery, gambling, drinking and for women who wear tight clothes and men who skip Friday prayers. Indonesia's secular central government granted Aceh the right to implement the law in 2006 as part of a peace deal to end a separatist war. Aceh implemented an expansion in 2015 that extended the law to non-Muslims, who account for about 1% of the province's population. Human rights groups have criticized the law, saying it violates international treaties signed by Indonesia protecting the rights of minorities. Indonesia's national criminal code doesn't regulate homosexuality. Monday's verdict was the fifth time that Aceh has sentenced people to public caning for homosexuality since the Islamic law was implemented. In February, the same court sentenced two men to public caning up to 85 times for gay sex after neighborhood vigilantes in Banda Aceh suspected them of being gay and broke into their rented room to catch them naked and hugging each other. ___ Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report. Yayan Zamzami, The Associated Press
The Hill
3 hours ago
- The Hill
Colombian senator and presidential hopeful dies 2 months after shooting
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A Colombian senator and presidential hopeful whose shooting at a political rally in June recalled some of the darkest chapters of the country's drug-fueled violence died Monday. The family of Miguel Uribe Turbay said the politician died at a hospital in the capital, Bogota. Uribe, 39, was shot three times, twice in the head, while giving a campaign speech in a park and had since remained in an intensive care unit in serious condition with episodes of slight improvement. 'Rest in peace, love of my life. I will take care of our children,' his wife, María Claudia Tarazona, wrote in a social media post confirming his death. 'I ask God to show me the way to learn to live without you.' A teenage suspect was arrested at the scene of the June 7 attack in a working-class Bogota neighborhood. Authorities later detained several other people, but they have not determined who ordered the hit or why. The shooting, which was caught on multiple videos, alarmed Colombians who have not seen this kind of political violence against presidential candidates since Medellin drug lord Pablo Escobar declared war on the state in the 1990s. Uribe's own mother, well-known journalist Diana Turbay, was among the victims of that period. She died during a police rescue after being kidnapped by a group of drug traffickers led by Escobar seeking to block their extradition to the United States. 'If my mother was willing to give her life for a cause, how could I not do the same in life and in politics?' Uribe, who was just 5 when his mother was killed, said in an interview last year with a Colombian news outlet. Uribe, a lawyer with a masters degree in public administration from Harvard University, entered politics as a councilman for Bogota when he was 26. In 2022, he was the biggest vote-getter in the conservative Democratic Center party led by former President Álvaro Uribe. 'Evil destroys everything,' the ex-president, who is not related to the senator, said on social media. 'They have killed hope. May Miguel's struggle be a light that illuminates Colombia's path.' The senator was among the strongest critics of Colombia's current government. In October, he joined the list of politicians seeking to replace Gustavo Petro, the first leftist to govern Colombia, in the May 2026 elections. Authorities have floated several hypotheses about what led to the attack, while allies of the candidate have complained that the government ignored repeated requests to reinforce his state-provided security detail. Petro took to X to offer condolences to Uribe's family and stress that the 'investigation must be furthered.' 'The government must repudiate the crime and help,' Petro wrote. 'Regardless of ideology, the person and their family, their life and safety, are the government's priority. We have not persecuted any member of the opposition, nor will we.' In the immediate aftermath of the attack, tens of thousands of people dressed in white and waving Colombian flags took to the streets to reject the violence. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was among the foreign politicians who lamented the senator's death. 'The United States stands in solidarity with his family, the Colombian people, both in mourning and demanding justice for those responsible,' he posted on X. By declaring his aspirations to higher office, Uribe sought to become the country's youngest president, although he was not on the list of favorites in the early stages of the race when he was shot. The shooting prompted the government to strengthen security for all opposition politicians and presidential hopefuls, some of whom called off political rallies for fear of being attacked. Javier Garay, a political science professor at the Externado University of Colombia, said Uribe has already 'become a symbol of the Colombian right.' However, he considered it premature to predict whether the senator's death will strengthen the political faction, given the current lack of unity and diverse proposals from dozens of politicians vying to represent the bloc on next year's ballot. ____
