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Sharia ruling: Lashes with a stick in Banda Aceh
Photo: CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN / AFP
In the conservative Indonesian province of Aceh, a homosexual couple was punished with public beating.
A Sharia court had previously sentenced the 27 and 28-year-old men to 77 lashes each with a rattan stick, said a local police spokesman for the dpa news agency.
The convicts were alternately beaten by three masked men.
The couple was arrested in November in Kuta Alam province, it said.
A local resident became suspicious and caught the two of them having sex.
CNN Indonesia reported that the condemned's pain was unbearable.
Medical staff had been called several times to make sure the men were doing well enough to keep beating them.
Dozens of people attended the punishment in Taman Sari Public Park.
Aceh is the only province in largely Muslim Indonesia that has been using Islamic Sharia law since 2003.
A stick-beating penalty is also imposed for crimes such as alcohol consumption, adultery or gambling.
Same-sex sex is up to 100 lashes with the stick.
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wit / dpa