Chris Pleasance – A convicted child rapist was whipped until he collapsed in the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh under the province's strict Sharia Laws.
The man, named only as Roni in local reports, was due to be hit 169 times with a rattan cane in a public building on Thursday, but fell down after 52 strikes.
Medical examiners ruled that he was unfit to continue, meaning he will be beaten a second time, when the remaining 117 lashes will be administered.
Roni had already served six months in jail before the beating was carried out, which had reduced his sentence from 175 to 169 – one for each month behind bars.
'When he was lashed 52 times, he was found on his right back there were heavy blisters, if he continued and was hit by the same beating, the blood vessels could burst and bleed," one of the medics told IDN Times.
'It is better if we postpone it until the recovery is good and the convict can be punished again.'
Roni was whipped alongside five people who had been convicted of gambling, and were given eight lashes of the cane each.
Whipping is used to punish a variety of crimes in Banda Aceh, Indonesia's most-conservative province, and the only one to base its legal system on Sharia Law.
Drinking, having an affair and homosexual sex can also be punished with whipping under the legal system.