After Gay Men Caned, Indonesia Further Tightens Noose On LGBTQ
The two gay men were publicly flogged in front of a crowd of over 1,000 people.
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A day after two gay men in Indonesia’s Aceh province were publicly caned dozens of times for consensual sex, the police in Indonesia's most populous province plan to deploy a task force to investigate lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activity, a move likely to fuel concerns of a widening crackdown on the community in the Muslim-majority country.
West Java police chief Anton Charliyan disclosed the plan on Tuesday as two gay men in the province of Aceh were publicly flogged, and days after police raided a gay club in Jakarta, and distributed photos of suspects to the media.
With the exception of Aceh, homosexuality is legal in Indonesia.
The two Acehnese men, caned 82 times each on Tuesday, were punished in front of a crowd of more than 1,000. Semi-autonomous Aceh province is governed by sharia Islamic law.
Earlier, a video of the men, naked and distressed as they were apprehended by sharia police, was released and viewed widely on social media.
In Indonesia's second-largest city of Surabaya in East Java, 14 gay men were arrested, tested for HIV and the results made public, Indonesian media reported.
The police said the photos were released due to "procedural errors", the Jakarta Post reported.
Rustinawati at Arus Pelangi said, however, the release of the images was part of a police pattern of publicly shaming of gay people.
(With inputs from Reuters and AP)