A couple in Indonesia’s Aceh province was publicly flogged for having sex outside marriage, a punishment under the region’s Sharia law.
The man and woman, whose identities and ages were not disclosed, each received 100 lashes with a rattan cane in front of a crowd.
Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that applies Sharia law, and such punishments are part of its efforts to uphold Islamic values.
“We implement Islamic law in Aceh, so whenever someone violates it, we have to carry out punishments like the caning we just conducted,” Rajesh Kana, an official from the local prosecutors’ office, told AFP.
The pair were among six individuals punished during the exercise.
Four others received between eight and 29 lashes for offences including physical contact with a member of the opposite sex and alcohol consumption.
A woman sentenced to 27 lashes fainted after the final stroke and was treated by paramedics at the scene.
Caning remains widely supported in Aceh and is used to punish offences such as gambling and same-sex relations.
In January, authorities in the province carried out one of the harshest penalties recorded since the introduction of Sharia law in 2015, flogging an unmarried couple 140 times each.
Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, although it officially recognises six religions alongside indigenous beliefs.
