A member of the sharia police holds a rattan stick during a public caning in Banda Aceh on June 4, 2025. Agence France-Presse
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — A man and woman were publicly flogged 100 times each in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province on Wednesday after they were found guilty of sex outside marriage by a court operating under strict Islamic law.
Sexual relations between an unmarried couple is outlawed in Aceh, which imposes a version of sharia, the Islamic legal code.
Indonesia banned sex outside of marriage in its latest criminal code in 2022 but that law will not come into force until next year.
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The two were lashed in sets of 10 with a rattan stick as a small crowd watched on at a park in provincial capital Banda Aceh, and the female suspect was lashed by a woman, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.
Three other suspects were caned a combined 49 times for alleged gambling and alcohol consumption.
“Today we are carrying out public flogging as punishment for perpetrators of adultery, alcohol consumption, and online gambling,” Banda Aceh Mayor Illiza Sa’aduddin Djamal told reporters.
“This becomes a moral lesson for the community at large. This flogging punishment becomes a gateway to repentance for them.”
Medical services were on standby for all of those convicted.
Rights groups have condemned public flogging as draconian.
Yet caning retains strong support among Aceh’s population as a common punishment for a range of offenses including gambling, drinking alcohol and adultery.
In February two men were publicly flogged more than 150 times after being found guilty of sexual relations. Gay sex is outlawed in Aceh.
The region started using religious law after it was granted special autonomy in 2001, an attempt by the central government to quell a long-running separatist insurgency. /dl
