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Authorities in Indonesia’s Aceh province on Thursday publicly caned an unmarried couple a total of 140 times for engaging in sexual relations and consuming alcohol, marking one of the harshest punishments imposed under the region’s Islamic law in recent years.
The punishment was carried out in a public park in Banda Aceh, where the man and woman were whipped across the back with a rattan cane as dozens of onlookers watched.
Reports suggest that the woman collapsed during the punishment and was later taken away in an ambulance.
According to the head of Banda Aceh’s Sharia police, Muhammad Rizal, the couple received 100 lashes for having sex outside marriage and an additional 40 lashes for drinking alcohol.
Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that enforces a form of Islamic law, under which sexual relations between unmarried persons are strictly prohibited.
Rizal said the sentence is believed to be among the highest number of lashes handed down since Aceh was granted special autonomy in 2001, allowing it to implement Sharia-based regulations.
The couple was among six persons punished on Thursday for violating Islamic codes.
Another case involved a Sharia police officer and his female companion who were found alone together in a private location. They were each sentenced to 23 lashes.
“We do not shield anyone from the law, not even our own officers,” Rizal said, adding that the incident had damaged the reputation of the Sharia enforcement agency.
Public caning remains widely supported in Aceh as a deterrent against offenses such as gambling, alcohol consumption, same-sex relations, and extramarital sex.
In 2025, two men were publicly flogged 76 times each after being convicted of a similar offense by a Sharia court.
Indonesian couple publicly caned 140 times for sex outside marriage
