Two men were publicly flogged 76 times each in Indonesia's Aceh province for having same-sex relations.

On Tuesday, two men were publicly flogged 76 times each in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province. They were found guilty of having same-sex relations by a court applying strict Islamic law. Same-sex relations are illegal in Aceh, which follows a strict version of Sharia law, but they are not illegal elsewhere in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.

The two men were flogged separately with a rattan stick in front of a small crowd, according to an AFP journalist at the scene. Their initial sentence of 80 lashes each was reduced by four lashes for the four months they spent in detention.

Amnesty International condemns this sanction

In April, local Sharia law enforcement police caught them together in a public restroom in the same park where the flogging took place, said Roslina A. Djalil, a Sharia law enforcement officer in Banda Aceh.

Amnesty International condemned the punishment. “The criminalization of same-sex relations has no place in a just and humane society,” Montse Ferrer, Amnesty International’s regional research director, said in a statement Tuesday. Human rights organizations condemn public whippings, but the practice enjoys strong public support. Aceh province began implementing Sharia law after being granted special autonomy in 2001, as part of an attempt by the central government to quell a long-running separatist insurgency.