Two Indonesian men receive 83 lashings each for gay sex

May 23 (UPI) -- Two men received 83 canings each on Tuesday in punishment after vigilantes in Aceh province, Indonesia, caught them engaged in gay sex.

They stood on a stage in front of a mosque in Banda Aceh as several hundred onlookers watched hooded men lash their backs with rattan canes. Their sentence of 85 canings was reduced to 83 because each had spent two months in jail.

While gay sex is not illegal in most of Indonesia, Aceh province adopted ultra-conservative Muslim Sharia law a decade ago. Strict laws against homosexual behavior have been enforced since 2014.

The two unidentified me, 20 and 23, were found in bed together in March, when vigilantes burst into their apartment. A Sharia court convicted them of sodomy on May 17. While canings for sex prior to marriage, gambling and alcohol consumption have recently occurred in the province, it is the first time gay men have been caned in Aceh province under Sharia law.

Earlier this month, 14 people were arrested by Indonesian police in Surabaya at an alleged gay party. They could face similar sentences, the BBC reported. On Monday, 141 men were arrested on similar charges for what police described as a gay party in a sauna in Jakarta, the capital; most were released on Tuesday.

The activist group Human Rights Watch had called on Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who has spoken out in favor of LGBT rights, to cancel the Aceh province punishment.