Sharia Court in Aceh Orders Unmarried Couple Caned After Viral Livestream Kiss

Verdict and Execution

Following their arrest in April, proceedings were opened before a Sharia court, which convicted the two defendants of violating Islamic morality law and sentenced them to corporal punishment. The sentence was carried out with a rattan cane, according to the authorities, with Aceh law providing for up to 100 strokes for moral offenses such as adultery or same-sex relations. Aceh is the only Indonesian province with extensive powers to implement Sharia.

The province on the island of Sumatra was granted the right to introduce Sharia in the early 2000s as part of a peace agreement that ended a decades-long separatist conflict. In 2006, this arrangement was formally confirmed by Indonesia's secular central government. In 2015, Aceh extended application of the law to non-Muslims, who are estimated to make up around one percent of the province's population.

Legal Classification and Criticism

International human rights organizations regularly criticize corporal punishment as torture or inhuman treatment. The United Nations and several Western governments have repeatedly called for caning to be abolished in Indonesia. Within Indonesia, there is a broad debate over the compatibility of Sharia legislation in Aceh with national human rights standards and the country's constitution.

Local observers report that the virality of the livestream made the case particularly high-profile in the media. Its spread via social media put the Sharia authorities under pressure to act visibly. At the same time, critics see the punishment as a sign of how strongly private actions in public spaces can be digitally documented and legally pursued.

The public prosecutor's office emphasized that the public execution of the sentence was intended to produce a deterrent effect. Sandri pointed to comparable punishments for alcohol consumption or gambling, which are also punished with caning in Aceh. Observers note that, in the past, intimate recordings from cars or apartments have repeatedly led to charges.

Legal observers point out that comparable cases have not been rare in the past. Couples who lived together unmarried or shared intimate acts on social media have repeatedly been arrested by the Sharia police in Banda Aceh. Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch describe corporal punishment as incompatible with international law.

The Attorney General's Office in Jakarta has so far not commented publicly on the specific case. However, the central government has stressed in the past that the power to punish in Aceh is constitutionally anchored. Discussions about reforming or abolishing corporal punishment have been conducted controversially in Indonesia for years, without a political majority for change having yet emerged.