An Islamic court in Indonesia’s Aceh province has sentenced two young men to 80 public lashes after finding them guilty of engaging in same-sex activities. The ruling was delivered on Monday, August 11.

According to the Banda Aceh Sharia Court, the students, aged 20 and 21, broke Islamic law when religious police found them kissing and hugging in a public park bathroom in April. While the trial was held privately, the verdict was announced to the public.

Chief Judge Rokhmadi M. Hum stated that the evidence showed the men were guilty of actions leading to homosexual relations. Their names were withheld from the public.

Prosecutors originally sought 85 lashes, but the court reduced the sentence. The judges considered the students’ cooperation, respectful behavior in court, clean criminal record, and good academic standing. Four lashes were deducted to account for the four months they had already spent in custody.

Aceh is the only region in Indonesia allowed to enforce Islamic law under a 2006 peace agreement that ended a separatist conflict.

Under this law, moral offenses like same-sex relations, adultery, gambling, alcohol consumption, and certain dress violations can be punished with up to 100 lashes.

Human rights organizations have repeatedly criticized Aceh’s flogging punishments, saying they violate international human rights agreements Indonesia has signed. The country’s national laws do not criminalize homosexuality.

This latest verdict is the fifth time since 2015 that people in Aceh have been sentenced to public caning for same-sex acts.