Sharia police in Indonesia’s Aceh province, on Thursday, gave a couple 140 strokes of the cane each for having sex outside marriage and consuming alcohol,
This bizarre punishment comes in what is believed to be one of the harshest such punishments since the deeply conservative region adopted Islamic law.
Aceh is the only province in Indonesia permitted to enforce a version of sharia, under which sexual relations between unmarried couples are strictly prohibited.
As dozens of spectators watched, the man and woman were publicly flogged in a Banda Aceh park and whacked on the back with a rattan cane, according to an AFP correspondent on the scene. The woman was reportedly taken away in an ambulance after fainting during the punishment.
Muhammad Rizal, the head of Banda Aceh’s Sharia police, told AFP that the two each suffered 140 lashes, 40 for drinking alcohol and 100 for having extramarital sex.
He claimed that since Aceh was given special autonomy in 2001, which permitted the application of Islamic law, the sentence was among the heaviest in terms of lashing.
Six persons were penalised for breaking the Islamic code, including the newlyweds. A sharia police officer and his female companion were among the others; they were apprehended together in a private setting and each received twenty-three lashes.
“As promised, we make no exceptions, especially not for our own members. This certainly tarnishes our name,” Rizal said.
