Teenage couple in Indonesia’s Aceh province whipped 17 times for cuddling in public
- The 18-year-old couple was whipped in front of hundreds of spectators in Banda Aceh
- Flogging in the conservative region is used as punishment for a range of offences, including gambling, gay sex or having extramarital relations
A young couple in Indonesia’s Aceh province were whipped on Thursday after they were caught cuddling in public – a crime under the conservative region’s Islamic law.
Hundreds of spectators watched as an 18-year-old university student and her boyfriend, also 18, were whipped 17 times each outside a mosque in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.
Flogging is used as punishment for a range of offences in the region at the tip of Sumatra island, including gambling, drinking alcohol, and having gay sex or relations outside of marriage.
A 35-year-old man was also flogged with a rattan cane for being intimate with a woman, aged 40, in a local grocery store.
All four had served several months in prison before the punishment.
On Thursday, the 40-year-old woman pleaded to be caned in an apparent attempt to get out of jail immediately, but a medical team postponed her flogging after they deemed her physically unfit.
