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Indonesia horror: Woman brutally caned in sharia punishment for having unmarried 'affair'

Source
The Express (UK) - September 20, 2018

Carly Read – The woman, who has not been not named, was barbarically punished as a crowd gathered and watched on in horror in Aceh, located north-west of Sumatra.

Pictures show the woman knelt on a public platform looking solemn in a white dress as her punisher, dressed in a black robe with just his eyes exposed, taunts her with a long bamboo-like stick before caning her with it.

In the background, civilians and guards look on as the Sharia law punishment is dealt out.

Indonesia is notorious for its public displays of brutality, along with other nations such as Malaysia, which has sparked outrage by human rights groups.

Earlier this month, two Malaysian women convicted of attempting lesbian sex in a car were lashed in public for the act, which is forbidden under Islamic law. Amnesty International said the caning marked "an appalling day" for human rights in Malaysia.

Rachel Chhoa-Howard, the group's Malaysia researcher, said: "To inflict this brutal punishment on two people for attempting to engage in consensual, same-sex relations is an atrocious setback on the government's efforts to improve its human rights records."

This followed the horrific case of a transgender woman who was beaten to a bloody pulp by a group of assailants in Seremban, south of Kuala Lumpur in mid-August.

Activists have said the attack was part of a growing hostility towards gay and transgender people. But it is not just women who have been flogged in public for violating Islamic law.

Earlier in the year, Jono Simbolon, an Indonesian Christian was sentenced to 36 lashes with a rattan stick. The punishment was so brutal that a doctor checked his health after 10 strokes, before allowing the flogging to continue.

He had been arrested in Aceh for selling alcohol and was one of 10 people, including eight men and two women, convicted for the crime.

Aceh, located on Sumatra island, is 98 percent Muslim and enforces Islamic law known locally as Qanun.

Non-Muslims, who have committed offences that violate both – national and religious laws, can choose whether they want to face a criminal or religious punishment.

Aceh began implementing Sharia law after is was granted special autonomy in 2001, an act taken by the central government to quell a long-running separatist insurgency.

In August last year men and women found guilty of adultery in Aceh were brutally whipped up to 100 times in front of crowds of people and in May last year, a Sharia court sentenced two gay men to be caned 85 times each in public after they had been in found in bed together.

Source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1020274/indonesia-news-sharia-punishment-aceh-woman-caned-public-affair-malaysia

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