Banda Aceh – Two people in Indonesia's Aceh have been caned for adultery, the latest case of public punishments since courts in the province were allowed to implement Islamic sharia law. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation but only Aceh has the right to adopt sharia law in the judicial system.

Aceh courts received that freedom in 2003 as part of an autonomy package Jakarta offered in an attempt to quell separatist passions in the province, where thousands died in a long-running insurgency.

"Both of them were arrested by sharia police in a kiosk in Sawang district two weeks ago after they were caught in an intimate situation," Tengku Marnus Labsyar, head of the South Aceh Sharia's office, told Reuters by telephone. He said the woman was a 23-year-old widow, while the married man was a 35-year-old teacher.

Television footage showed first the man and then the woman, both dressed in white, given nine and seven strokes respectively with a rattan stick on a platform surrounded by a jeering crowd in the compound of the Kasik Putih mosque in Samadua, a town in the south of Aceh.

The woman was led away sobbing after receiving her punishment from a blindfolded man man wearing a red robe. The caning took place on Friday. Aceh has previously caned people under sharia law for gambling and stealing. The rulings by sharia courts have to be approved by Aceh's governor.

Caning is a common judicial practice in neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore. Most Indonesian Muslims are considered relatively moderate and the government is officially secular, but Aceh is a more staunchly Muslim province.

Located on the northern tip of Sumatra island, Aceh is dubbed the "Verandah of Mecca" because Islam first entered Indonesia from there centuries ago. Analysts say Aceh sharia courts are unlikely to use stronger penalties such as stoning for adultery or amputation for theft.

[Additional reporting by Telly Nathalia in Jakarta.]