A couple in Indonesia’s Aceh province has been publicly caned 140 times each after being found guilty of having sex outside marriage and consuming alcohol—one of the harshest punishments recorded since the region adopted Islamic law.
The flogging was carried out on Thursday by Sharia police in a public park in Banda Aceh, witnessed by dozens of onlookers. According to an AFP reporter at the scene, the woman fainted after receiving the lashes and was taken away in an ambulance.
Muhammad Rizal, head of the Banda Aceh Sharia police, stated the couple received 100 lashes for extramarital sex and an additional 40 for alcohol consumption.
Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that enforces Sharia law, which penalizes offenses such as gambling, drinking alcohol, gay sex, and intimacy outside marriage with public caning. The punishment is widely supported locally.
In the same session, six people were flogged, including a Sharia police officer and his female partner, who each received 23 lashes for being in close proximity in a private setting.
“We make no exceptions, especially not for our own members,” Rizal said.
Public caning has been implemented in Aceh since it was granted special autonomy in 2001. Last year, two men were flogged 76 times each for similar offences.
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