Rights groups on Tuesday called on Indonesia's ultra-conservative Aceh province to release four men held on suspicion of having homosexual sex, amid deteriorating LGBT rights in the country.
The four suspects were detained by members of the public and police and if found guilty face 100 lashes, police told Free Malaysia Today.
"We are completing their files and will soon hand over to prosecutors," said Marzuki, head of sharia police investigations in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, according to Free Malaysia Today.
Graeme Reid, LGBT director atHuman Rights Watch, said the punishment "constitutes torture under international human rights law" and that "authorities should release the four and protect the public from marauding vigilantes who target vulnerable minorities.
Aceh is currently the only province in Indonesia to criminalize gay sex, but the country's parliament is currently debating revisions to the criminal code would criminalize all sex outside marriage, including gay sex.
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