An Indonesian man who fainted during a brutal public flogging Thursday for indulging in pre-marital sex was revived and then had his punishment resumed before he was taken to hospital for recovery.
Aceh is the only region in Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country, that imposes strict Islamic law which requires public flogging for religious miscreants.
The 22-year-old man — sentenced to 100 strokes — pleaded with a masked Sharia officer to stop lashing his back with a rattan cane before he passed out, but not before some of the 500 locals who had gathered to watch cried out “harder, harder.”
The guilty man was revived and given brief medical attention and then the flogging continued. He was later rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.
An Indonesian man is whipped in public on charges of engaging in sexual relations, in Aceh Timur on December 5, 2019. – Two Indonesian men and a woman were whipped in Indonesia’s Aceh province after they were found guilty of having pre-marital sex, a serious crime under under the conservative region’s Islamic law. (CEK MAD/AFP via Getty Images)
The man had been found guilty of having sex with a woman who was also sentenced to 100 lashes of her own outside a mosque in Aceh Timur district, along with another different man she had relations with.
“This is the consequence they have to face for violating the law,” onlooker Muhammad Yunus told AFP.
The BBC reports Aceh was granted special rights to introduce its own stricter Islamic laws more than a decade ago while laws against homosexuality were passed in 2014 and came into effect the following year.
Extra-marital sex, gambling, and the consumption, production and distribution of alcohol are all illegal under Sharia law, as Breitbart News reported.
In 2017, two men were caned 83 times each in Aceh after they were caught having sex.
An Indonesian man faints after he was whipped in public on charges of engaging in sexual relations, in Aceh Timur on December 5, 2019. (CEK MAD/AFP via Getty Images)
Despite international condemnation, whipping is a common punishment for a range of offences in the deeply conservative region on Sumatra island.
In September, a trio of canoodling couples were publicly flogged in the strict province, charged with breaking the same local Islamic law that bans any public displays of affection.
As Breitbart News reported, one woman winced and fell over from the painful punishment on that occasion, which was also carried out in front of a mosque.
An Indonesian woman is whipped in public on charges of engaging in sexual relations, in Aceh Timur on December 5, 2019. CEK MAD/AFP via Getty Images)
Five couples received up to 22 strokes each on that occasion – after already serving months inside prison.
The punishments were meted out by a masked ‘religious officer’ – in front of a crowd containing kids – using a rattan cane.
Last month a strictly observant Muslim Indonesian man – who worked as a religious policeman enforcing adultery laws – was also publicly whipped after being caught with a married woman.
He now stands to lose his job after local Islamic officials expressed a lack of confidence in his ability to fully discharge his duties.
AFP contributed to this story