Agence France Press reports that each of the two men received forty lashes from a masked Sharia officer who beat their backs with a cane. Five others were flogged Monday in addition to the Christian men. The five others, all Muslims, were punished for the crimes of adultery and alcohol consumption.

One of the Christian men told the news agency that he chose to be flogged to avoid a criminal prosecution in which he could have been jailed for up to six months. 

Although flogging of non-Muslims is not common in Aceh, the two men are not the first non-Muslims to be caned in the province. 

The human rights group reports that the situation for Christians in the Southeast Asian country has deteriorated in recent years because the Indonesian society has taken on “a more conservative Islamic character.” However, the level of persecution Christians face in Indonesia depends on the regions in which they live. 

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has advised the U.S. State Department to list Indonesia on its “special watch list” of countries that engage in or tolerate severe religious freedom violations. 

Source: christianpost.com