Couple Caned for Kissing on TikTok in Indonesia's Conservative Aceh Province
Authorities said the punishment was the first in Aceh for a social media violation, after the couple’s livestream kiss drew reports and an investigation.
- On Thursday, authorities in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, publicly caned an unmarried couple 21 times each for kissing during a TikTok livestream at Bustanussalatin City Park, witnessed by at least a hundred people.
- Aceh is the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia enforcing Islamic Sharia law, the Qanun Jinayat, which prohibits physical intimacy between unmarried people and allows up to 100 lashes for morality offenses.
- The Sharia court originally sentenced the couple to 25 lashes each, but reduced the count to 21 strokes because they had already spent four months in prison, while seizing a cellphone and USB flash drive as evidence.
- Sharia police head Muhammad Rizal stated this was the province's first punishment for social media-based Sharia violations, while resident Aini Nadhirah, 22, said the caning serves as a necessary warning to other residents.
- Amnesty International Indonesia criticized the punishment as a "horrifying act of discrimination," with Executive Director Usman Hamid calling for the government to end corporal punishment and its expansion into digital expression.
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The sentence was executed in a park in Banda Aceh, before dozens of people
A 25-year-old girl and a 22-year-old girl were whipped 21 times in public square for kissing without being married. The court considered the act a violation of local Islamic law.
21 Lashes For A TikTok Kiss? Couple Publicly Caned Under Sharia Law
A young couple in Indonesia has been publicly caned after allegedly kissing during a TikTok livestream, with the punishment carried out under Islamic Sharia law in the country's conservative Aceh province. The 22-year-old man and 25-year-old woman each received 21 lashes on Thursday after being convicted by a Sharia court of violating local morality laws. According to reports, the pair had already spent four months in prison after being detained…
The province of Aceh applies Islamic law and punishes with public flogging conduct considered contrary to morals.
They spent four months in pretrial detention, and therefore received 21 strokes of the cane instead of the originally imposed 25.
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