A young, unmarried couple in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province has been publicly caned after a Sharia court convicted them of violating Islamic law. The 22-year-old man and 25-year-old woman were each subjected to 21 lashes with a rattan cane in Bustanussalatin City Park, Banda Aceh, witnessed by approximately 100 people. Their offence was kissing during a TikTok livestream, an act deemed to contravene the province's religious statutes.
The couple was apprehended in April following a livestream from 27th February, which depicted them kissing inside a car in Banda Aceh. The video subsequently went viral, leading to reports being made to local Sharia authorities. Their initial sentence was 25 lashes each, but this was reduced to 21 due to the four months they had already spent in prison. Additionally, a mobile phone and a USB flash drive containing the incriminating TikTok video were seized by the court for destruction as evidence.
Aceh stands as the sole province in Muslim-majority Indonesia that enforces a version of Islamic law. This right was granted by the country's secular central government in 2006 as part of a peace accord aimed at ending a protracted separatist conflict. In 2015, the scope of this law was broadened to include non-Muslims, who constitute roughly 1% of the province's population, further extending its reach beyond the Muslim community.
The Sharia law in Aceh permits up to 100 lashes for a range of morality offences, including adultery and same-sex relations. Caning is also a prescribed punishment for activities such as gambling, consuming alcohol, women wearing tight clothing, and men failing to attend Friday prayers. On the same day as the couple's caning, four other individuals were also publicly whipped for offences related to online gambling and adultery, underscoring the broad application of these laws.
Amnesty International Indonesia has vehemently criticised the public caning, characterising it as a form of human rights violation. Usman Hamid, the executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, stated that such punishments are 'cruel, inhumane and degrading to human dignity'. He highlighted that Indonesia has ratified a convention mandating the abolition of inhumane punishments, arguing that while the couple's behaviour might be considered inappropriate for social media, it does not warrant imprisonment or caning, which he deemed 'excessive'.