Several unmarried couples were publicly punished for showing affection in public in Indonesia's Banda Aceh province. Hundreds of spectators watched as the couples were caned by the Sharia police. With the couples, two women, too, were punished for prostitution related crimes.
Hundreds gathered to watch the punishments in eager as these punishments are likely to be moved indoors after the province's governor announced the decision earlier this month.
The women accused of prostitution received 11 lashes, while the couples received between 11 and 22 strokes. The couples were lucky that they were not convicted of adultery, which would have resulted in more lashes. According to police, the accusation lacked enough witnesses.
Last year, the caning of two men for gay sex before a crowd drew attention to Aceh's increasingly harsh implementation of Sharia law.
Though caning, in future, will be held indoors in prisons, the Human Rights Watch has condemned the move as cosmetic and has called for the complete abolishment of the laws that allow it. The HRW said that caning is a form of torture whether it is conducted in public or not.
