The Indonesian province of Aceh yesterday approved a law that can punish anyone caught having gay sex with 100 lashes.
After a three-decade-old separatist movement, a peace agreement signed in 2005 granted special autonomy to Aceh, at the northern tip of Sumatra, on condition that it remained part of the archipelago. As part of that deal it won the right to be the only Indonesian province to use Islamic sharia law as its legal code.
Anybody caught engaging in consensual gay sex will be punished with 100 lashes, 100 months in jail or a fine of 1000 grammes of gold.
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