Yahoo – AFP,
April 13, 2016
An elderly Christian woman has been caned in a conservative Indonesian province for selling alcohol, the first time someone from outside the Islamic faith has been punished there under strict religious laws.
An elderly Christian woman has been caned in a conservative Indonesian province for selling alcohol, the first time someone from outside the Islamic faith has been punished there under strict religious laws.
The 60-year
was whipped nearly 30 times with a rattan cane before a crowd of hundreds in
Aceh province Tuesday, an official said, along with a couple who were subjected
to 100 lashes for committing adultery.
Indonesia's
Aceh province began
implementing sharia law after being
granted special
autonomy in 2001
(AFP Photo/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
|
Those
caught engaging in adultery, same-sex relationships, drinking and even
associating with unmarried members of the opposite sex can end up facing the
cane.
Though the
law once only applied to Muslims, a bylaw that took effect late last year
allowed sharia regulations to be applied to non-Muslims in certain situations,
Lili Suparli, a senior official at the Central Aceh prosecutor's office told
AFP.
"This
is the first case of a non-Muslim being punished under Islamic criminal
bylaw," he said, referring to the punishment of the Christian woman.
Aceh began
implementing sharia law after being granted special autonomy in 2001, an effort
by the central government in Jakarta to quell a long-running separatist insurgency.
Aceh is the
only province in the predominantly Muslim Indonesia that applies sharia
law,
and public canings for breaches of Islamic code happen on a regular basis
(AFP
Photo/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
|
Islamic
laws have been strengthened since the province struck a peace deal with the
central government in 2005.
More than
90 percent of Indonesians describe themselves as Muslim, but the vast majority
practise a moderate form of the faith.
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