Amelia Wynne for Mailonline – An Indonesian prisoner has been left with gruesome injuries after being whipped for violating Sharia law.
The Aceh Islamic Sharia Court administered 17 lashes for the man who had been found guilty of gambling in Lhokseumawe City. Shocking pictures show dark red marks on the man's back and down the side of his arm.
The Aceh region in Western Indonesia is renowned for being a conservative area and the only part of the country where Sharia Law is used.
The whipping was held by the Lhokseumawe District Attorney's Office at the Tunas Bangsa Lhokseumawe Stadium after Friday prayers today.
The defendant was arrested on April 17 in a coffee shop in Banda Sakti District, Lhokseumawe.
Other images show a man in a black robe carrying out the punishment as he lifts the whip into the air.
Head of public crimes in Lhokseumawe City, Muhammad Doni Sidik, said the defendant was originally sentenced to 20 lashings after a Sharia Court ruling on July 6.
However the number of lashings was reduced by three to 17 because the man had already spent 98 days in prison. Every 30 days in jail means a reduction of one lashing in the final punishment.
Doni said that after the whipping, the defendant was immediately handed over to the medical team and was then released.
The whipping was witnessed by a number of officials. Only a few members of the general public watched the punishment.
In the Aceh region offences that would result in the implementation of Sharia law include alcohol consumption, gambling, adultery and homosexuality.
Once one of the most powerful Islamic sultanates in Southeast Asia, the area had long used an informal kind of Islamic law mixed with local laws, known as 'hukum adat'.
But the legislation was enhanced when Aceh's long-running separatist conflict ended in 2005. The laws have been gradually expanded to more offences, most recently in 2014.