Four Malaysian nationals on Monday were caned for having gay sex, which is a violation of the Islamic laws.
Human rights group Amnesty International said Tuesday that the men, aged between 26 to 37, received six cane strokes inside a prison in Kuala Lumpur for attempting intercourse against Islamic laws.
A religious group found out about the sexual act at a private event last year through a monitoring of messages among the men on social media.
The group confirmed the sexual act and sent up to 50 police raiding the area.
The men admitted to committing the act, prompting an Islamic court to slap them of up to seven months jail term.
A fifth man was not caned after appealing the jail sentence, while six others are set to face trial on the same charges, which the human rights group is calling to drop.
“These vicious punishments… are the actual crimes being committed here,” Amnesty International’s Malaysia executive director Shamini Darshni Kaliemuthu said.
“The whole affair is a scandal and a judicial travesty,” she added.
“Malaysia should be creating an environment in which LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people are free from discrimination, not ensnaring and beating innocent people.”
Malaysia has a dual-track legal system, with Shariah courts handling cases involving Muslim citizens.
Last year, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said that the LGBT community, as well as same-sex marriage, have no place in the mostly-Muslim country.
Mohamad said that such acts were “western values.”
“Same-sex relations are not a crime. Yet the Malaysian authorities are going to terrible lengths to vilify [LGBT] people by exacting these cruel punishments,” Kaliemuthu said.
Caning is a form of corporal punishment which is prohibited under the international law and may amount to torture, according to Amnesty International.
In September 2018, two women have also received a caning upon the orders of Terengganu Shariah High Court for “sexual relations between women.”
