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Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that criminalizes consensual same-sex acts due to the special autonomy status that has allowed it to apply the Islamic Criminal Code since 2015.
Sharia bylaws have been in force in Aceh since the enactment of the province’s Special Autonomy Law in 2001 and are enforced by Islamic courts.
These laws in some cases provide for up to 200 lashes as punishment for offences including consensual intimacy or sexual activity for unmarried couples, consensual sex outside marriage, same-sex sexual relations, the consumption and sale of alcohol, and gambling.
Under international human rights law all forms of corporal punishment are prohibited as they constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment and often torture.
This year so far, 15 people have been sentenced to flogging in Aceh for various violations under Sharia law, in addition to a total 135 individuals receiving similar punishments in 2024.
In a separate case, on 4 February 2025, Sharia police in the city of Lhokseumawe, Aceh, raided a house and arrested four men who they claimed were engaged in same-sex relations after receiving a tip-off from locals.
Aceh and Indonesian central government authorities must take immediate action to halt these practices and revoke the bylaws that allow them to take place.
“Such laws must be brought in line with international human rights law and standards, and with Indonesia’s obligations under its own Constitution. The abuse also is part of a five-year anti-LGBT campaign driven by many of Indonesia’s national and local leaders with harmful rhetoric and repeated failure to punish abusers.”
Two gay men grimace in pain as they are brutally whipped in public
Two gay men grimaced in agony as they were brutally whipped in public over their same-sex relations in Aceh, Indonesia.
They were flogged 76 times each in the conservative province after they were found guilty of sexual relations by a court operating under strict Islamic law.
Gay sex is outlawed in Aceh, which imposes a version of sharia, the Islamic legal code, but it is not illegal elsewhere in the world's most populous Muslim majority country.
Brutal: Two gay men grimaced in agony as they were brutally whipped in public over their same-sex relations in Aceh, Indonesia
The men were part of a group of 10 who were flogged on Tuesday at a park in the provincial capital for a range of alleged crimes.
The pair were flogged separately with a rattan stick as a small crowd watched, according to a journalist present.
Their initial sentences of 80 lashes each were reduced by four for four months spent in detention.
Flogged: The pair were flogged separately with a rattan stick as a small crowd watched
In April, local sharia police found the two men together at a public toilet in the same park where they were later flogged, said Roslina A.
Djalil, head of Banda Aceh sharia police's law enforcement.
'A member of the public saw suspicious people and reported it,' Roslina said.
Amnesty International condemned the punishment.
'This punishment is a horrifying reminder of the institutionalized stigma and abuse faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in Aceh.'
Tears: One of the men could be seen crying as the brutal punishment was enforced
Found: In April, local sharia police found the two men together at a public toilet in the same park where they were later flogged
Whipped: Their initial sentences of 80 lashes each were reduced by four for four months spent in detention
The statement added: 'We call on the Acehnese and Indonesian central government authorities to immediately halt these degrading practices and repeal all discriminatory bylaws that permit such violations.
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Indonesia: Flogging of gay men a horrifying act of discrimination
Responding to the flogging of two university students in Indonesia’s Aceh province for having consensual same-sex sexual relations, Amnesty International Deputy Regional Director Montse Ferrer said:
“Indonesia’s flogging of two gay men is a horrifying act of discrimination.
Graphic pictures captured both men wincing with pain as the punishment took place.
They were allowed a brief break to drink water before the punishment continued.
Indonesian media also reported that the mother of one man fainted on the spot at the sight of her son being whipped.
The couple, who remain unidentified, were reportedly arrested in November after neighbors became suspicious and broke into their apartment where they were caught having sex.
Four others were whipped on the same day over allegations they consumed alcohol or met with members of the opposite sex.
Gay sex is not illegal in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation—but the topic remains highly taboo.
Aceh’s regional autonomy, which is its basis to apply Sharia law, must not come at the expense of human rights.”
Background
Two university students were publicly flogged in the city of Banda Aceh for having consensual same-sex relations. One of the men was flogged 77 times while his partner received a slightly higher punishment of 82 lashes for providing a place for their consensual sexual activities.
According to media reports, the two were seized on 7 November 2024 by locals who forcefully entered their rented room in Banda Aceh and later took them to the Sharia police for investigation.
Citizen’s arrests are common in Aceh due to the implementation of Sharia law, which allows locals to turn people over to the Sharia police for investigation.
After the arrest, local officials in Aceh said that they would patrol the province to monitor “LGBTI activities”, including in beauty salons where many transwomen make a living in Aceh. Subsequently, on 15 February, locals raided a rented room in Banda Aceh, turning one transwoman and a man over to Sharia police for investigation.
Note: An amendment was applied to this output on 29 August 2025 to correct terminology in relation to consensual same-sex activity.
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Aceh, a semi-autonomous province located on the northwestern tip of Sumatra island, imposes Sharia law and carries out public canings as a form of punishment.“Islamic Sharia enforcement is final, no matter who it is,” a public order official told AFP.
“Even visitors must respect local norms and rules.”
In November, a local man convicted of child rape was whipped nearly 150 times while a religious leader was publicly flogged 28 times after he was caught having an affair.
Rights groups lambasted the latest caning in Aceh, calling it “barbaric and cruel”.
“The Indonesian government made commitments in principle to protect LGBT people but it seems President Joko Widodo’s slogan of ‘unity in diversity’ does not genuinely extend to protecting everyone,” wrote Kyle Knight, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.
He said that the latest public caning was part of a “troubling trend of anti-LGBT actions.”
“While horrific, the public spectacle of floggings are part of a longstanding pattern of targeted abuse by Aceh authorities against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
Consensual same-sex activity between adults should never be criminalized, and no one should be punished because of their real or perceived sexual orientation.
“Having already had their privacy brutally invaded when they were ambushed by members of the public while having sex, these men were then humiliated in public today and physically harmed.
“These flogging punishments are cruel, inhuman and degrading, and may amount to torture.
'Aceh's regional autonomy must not come at the expense of human rights.'
Three women and five men were also flogged on Tuesday after being found guilty of sex outside marriage, being in close proximity to members of the opposite sex, and online gambling.
Caning retains strong support among Aceh's population as a common punishment for offences, including drinking alcohol and adultery.
Masked: They were flogged by a masked member of the Sharia police team
Lashings: A woman and a man were also flogged after they were convicted of having premarital sex
Cane: A member of the Sharia police holding rattan sticks as the convicted await their punishment
Recorded: Some members of the public recorded on their phones as the men were forced to endure the punishment
The region started using religious law after it was granted special autonomy in 2001 as Jakarta tried to quell a long-running separatist insurgency.
In February, two gay men aged 24 and 18 were flogged in the same area.
Two men in Indonesia’s conservative province of Aceh were publicly caned 77 times after being reported to local Islamic police for having gay sex.
Dozens gathered at a city park on Thursday to witness the couple, aged 27 and 29, repeatedly whipped across their backs by a team of masked enforcers, wearing robes and hoods.
In a statement, its regional research director, Montse Ferrer, said: 'This public flogging of two young men under Aceh's Islamic Criminal Code for consensual sex is a disturbing act of state-sanctioned discrimination and cruelty.