A young couple in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province were publicly caned on Thursday after a Shariah court convicted them of violating Islamic law by kissing during a TikTok livestream. Aceh's Sharia court ordered the two people to be whipped with a rattan cane 21 times each for kissing without being married, reports the AP. At least a hundred people witnessed the caning, carried out by a group of people wearing robes and hoods on a stage in Bustanussalatin Central Park in Banda Aceh. The couple, a 22-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman, were arrested in April after a Feb. 27 livestream in which they kissed in a car in Banda Aceh went viral and prompted reports to local Sharia authorities.
Aceh is the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia that enforces a version of Islamic law. Indonesia's secular central government granted the province the right to implement religious law in 2006 as part of a peace deal to end a separatist war. In 2015, Aceh expanded the law to apply to non-Muslims, who account for about 1% of the province's population. The law allows up to 100 lashes for morality offenses, including adultery and gay sex. Caning is also allowed to punish people for gambling and drinking, and for women who wear tight clothes or men who skip Friday prayers.
The couple caned on Thursday were sentenced to 25 lashes each, but it was reduced to 21 strokes because they'd already spent four months in prison. The court also seized a cellphone and a USB flash drive containing the TikTok live video as evidence to be destroyed. Four other people were publicly caned on Thursday for online gambling and adultery. Amnesty International Indonesia said public caning in Aceh is a form of human rights violation, because it's cruel, inhumane, and degrading to human dignity, even though Indonesia has ratified a convention mandating the abolition of inhumane punishments.
"Such behavior might be considered inappropriate because social media is viewed by people of various age groups, including children," said Usman Hamid, the group's executive director, on Thursday. "But is it a crime that warrants imprisonment or even caning? That would be excessive." Aini Nadhirah, 22, a Banda Aceh resident who attended the caning, said that public concern over the punishment could provide a lesson for others. "In my opinion, this caning is entirely justified because it serves as a warning to other Aceh residents to be more careful when using social media," Nadhirah noted. "It also raises awareness that such actions are unacceptable."
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