Twelve people were flogged in Aceh province for being found with a member of the opposite sex who wasn't a relation or having intimate relations outside marriage |
Six couples were publicly whipped in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province Monday for relations outside marriage, with at least two women unable to walk after the painful punishment.
Flogging is
common for a range of offences in the region at the tip of Sumatra island,
including gambling, drinking alcohol, and having gay sex.
It is the
only province in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country that imposes
Islamic law.
The twelve
people whipped Monday were arrested late last year during a raid on a hotel in
the province's capital Banda Aceh.
Four people
were each flogged seven times after being found with a member of the opposite
sex who wasn't a relation.
The others -- who were caught in more compromising positions -- received between 17-25 strokes for having intimate relations outside of marriage, an official said.
Flogging is
common for many offences in Aceh, including gambling,
drinking alcohol, and
having gay sex
|
The others -- who were caught in more compromising positions -- received between 17-25 strokes for having intimate relations outside of marriage, an official said.
All 12 also
served several months in prison before the public punishment.
Some women
cried out in pain as a masked sharia officer lashed them, and at least two had
to be carried from the scene by sharia officers.
Dozens of
spectators and journalists watched quietly. Some winced occasionally after the
blows, while others used smartphones and tablets to film the spectacle.
"This
law is designed to have a deterrent effect, not only for the offenders but for
the spectators who watch the caning," said the head of the local public
order agency, Marwan, who like many Indonesian goes by one name.
He added: "The pain of being flogged is not that bad, the embarrassment is worse."
Rights
groups have slammed public caning as cruel, and Indonesia's President
Joko
Widodo has called for it to end
|
He added: "The pain of being flogged is not that bad, the embarrassment is worse."
Rights
groups have slammed public caning as cruel, and Indonesia's President Joko
Widodo has called for it to end.
But the
practice has wide support among Aceh's mostly Muslim population -- around 98
percent of its five million residents practise Islam.
Aceh
adopted religious law after it was granted special autonomy in 2001, an attempt
by the central government to quell a long-running separatist insurgency.
In
December, two men caught having sex with underage girls were whipped 100 times
each.
In the only Indonesian province that imposes Islamic law, six couples were publicly whipped for relations outside marriagehttps://t.co/KshjjLTGZb pic.twitter.com/xm11PxnBjJ— AFP news agency (@AFP) 4 maart 2019
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