Chris Jewers – Three men have been brutally caned 42 times today for consuming alcohol and breaking Sharia law on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Pictures showed an intimidating executor, or 'algojo', gripping a rattan before carrying out the public caning against four men in front of Islamic court officials.

Dressed in brown robes, the algojo struck the backs of the convicts with the wooden cane in the centre of a white, tiled room.

Two of the convicts were seen dressed in white tunics, while the other two wore red tops printed with the name of the district attorney's office.

They were led into the middle of the room to sit on a blue rug, their heads bowed, before each taking their turn to receive their respective punishments.

Banda Aceh is the capital and largest city in the Indonesian province of Aceh, and is located on the island of Sumatra – home to the Acehnese people.

Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that has implemented Sharia law and considers gambling, alcohol, lesbian, gay and bisexual relationships and sex outside of marriage as violations of the law.

Punishments for breaking the draconian laws include caning, fines, and imprisonment. In 2009, there was a legal push to also allow stoning, but this was vetoed by the governor of Aceh at the time.

The four Acehnese men received 19 to 42 lashes for drinking alcohol, known as 'khamar' in sharia law. A police officer with a microphone oversaw the punishments.

The three men to receive the 42 lashes were named in local press as M. Fais Akbar, Aulia Syahputra, and Yusdi, while Cukri Ramadhan received 19.

Before the punishment was out, all men underwent a health check by a team of medics. They were all deemed ready to serve their sentence.

The executing prosecutor then called the convicts into the middle of the room one by one, where the caning sentence was carried out.

Kompas reported that the caning was paused for one of the men after he groaned in pain after 10 lashes. He was given something to drink by the medics, who also checked on his condition, before the punishment continued.

'Today, the execution of the caning sentence for four people convicted of violating khamar or being drunk has been completed,' said the Head of the Banda Aceh District Prosecutor's Office after the process.

Supporters of the Islamic criminal law argue that such punishments are legal under the special autonomy that is granted to Aceh.

Critics have called on officials to abolish the use of caning as a punishment, while also objecting to the criminalisation of sex outside of marriage and homosexuality.

Amnesty International, which has urged the region to stop the practice of caning gay men, said 108 canings were carried out in 2015 and 100 in 2016.

It said that sharia law applied to non-Muslims for the first time in 2016 when a Christian woman was sentenced to 28 strokes for selling alcohol.

In 2022 it was reported that a woman had received 100 lashes for adultery, while the man she had the affair with only received 15 lashes.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13587559/Men-caned-consuming-alcohol-Indonesia.htm