Two Christian men were flogged drink alcohol on Mondays and gamble for money in Aceh, the only province in Indonesia that applies Sharia, Islamic law.
The two Christians each received 40 strokes of the cane in Banda Aceh on Monday, capital of this conservative Islamic province in Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world.
One of them, identified by his initials JF, told AFP he chose this sentence over civil suits that could have put him in prison for up to six months.
“The Sharia police have given us two options and we have deliberately chosen to submit to Islamic law. No one has forced us,” he told AFP.
Flogging is a punishment rarely imposed on non-Muslims in the northern province of the island of Sumatra, where two men in Aceh received about 80 rattan canes for having sex last week.
In Banda Aceh, a total of seven people were whipped on Monday. The other five were Muslims who were punished for adultery or drinking.
Human rights defenders associations denounce these punishments, which they compare to torture, while Indonesian President Joko Widodo has called for an end to them.