By Joshua Tosin Ogunsakin 
A couple was publicly flogged in Indonesia’s staunchly Islamic Aceh province on Tuesday for having sex outside of marriage, an AFP reporter witnessed, in the country’s only region to apply a version of Sharia law.
The man and woman, whose ages were not disclosed, received 100 cane lashes each in a public park in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, with dozens of people watching.
“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.
Sexual relations between unmarried people are outlawed in Aceh.
Police flogged the pair with a rattan cane, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.
They were among six people flogged on Tuesday.
Four others received between eight and 29 strokes each for offences such as having physical contact with a member of the opposite sex or drinking alcohol.
A woman who was sentenced to 27 lashes fainted at the last whip of the rattan stick and had to be treated by paramedics.
Caning retains strong support in Aceh to punish a range of offences that also include gambling and gay sex.
In January, Sharia police in Aceh caned an unmarried couple 140 times each — likely the severest punishment since Sharia law was implemented in the province in 2015.
Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, but officially recognises six religions as well as indigenous beliefs.
AFP