A couple was publicly whipped on Thursday, January 13, in Aceh, Indonesia’s most conservative province, for committing adultery – the woman was whipped 100 times, while the man, who continuously denies the allegations, was only whipped 15 times.
Dozens of citizens have watched the public flogging on Wednesday, January 13. According to reports by AFP, the woman’s flogging was halted temporarily due to her incapacity to endure the pain.
Photographs taken at the event showed the woman dressed in traditional clothing and standing before masked enforcers wearing robes and hoods.
Locals have spotted the man and woman together at a palm oil plantation and reported them to the religious police, according to AFP.
A court official and investigator in charge of the case defended the judge’s decision to give the woman a stiffer sentence than the man, saying she admitted to cheating on her husband and having sex with another married man.
In addition to being married, the man runs the East Aceh fishing agency, AFP reported, citing the director of the general investigation division at the East Aceh prosecutor’s office.
“He denied wrongdoing and was let off lightly because of his position with a local fishery body,” the director of the prosecutor’s office said.
“During the trial, he admitted nothing, denying all accusations,” head investigator Ivan Najjar Alavi told local reporters who gathered at the venue where the public flogging took place. “Thus, [judges] are not able to prove whether he is guilty.”
Instead of being found guilty of adultery, he was charged with “showing affection to a female partner” who was not his wife and was sentenced to 30 strokes, later reduced to 15 after he successfully appealed the punishment.
“How could a woman, who admitted to having sex with the man, be sentenced to 100 lashes and the man only 15,” Andreas Harsono, an Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch, informed international news outlet, VICE.
“It is simply irrational and also shows the bias of the judges. It’s discriminatory towards women,” he stated.
Several human rights advocates have long been urging Aceh’s government officials to review its legal system for many years, frequently calling the punishment “barbaric” for victimless crimes.
Aceh is Indonesia’s only province to enforce Islamic law as part of a deal that allows the region some autonomy from the rest of Indonesia. The law allows flogging in some situations such as those involving alcohol consumption, gambling, same-sex sexual relations, and adultery.
Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s president, has called on Aceh to stop using such punishment since 2017.
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