An unmarried couple were publicly caned 100 times each in Indonesia's Aceh province on Wednesday, 29 May, after a Sharia court found them guilty of engaging in premarital sex. The punishment was carried out in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, with dozens of onlookers gathering to witness the flogging in an event sanctioned by religious authorities.
The pair, whose names have not been released, were sentenced under Aceh's Qanun Jinayat, an Islamic criminal code unique to the province. This strict legal framework governs personal morality and remains in force under Indonesia's special autonomy arrangements for Aceh, granted as part of a peace agreement signed in 2005.
