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| A woman being led to a caning in Indonesia (Photo: © Reuters) |
(Clarion Project) Three women were publicly caned in Indonesia for the crime of khalwat, affectionate contact between an unmarried couple. The caning of a fourth convicted woman was postponed because she had recently given birth by Caesarean section.
“She’ll be caned once she’s recovered,” said the head of the prosecutor’s office in Banda Aceh, as quoted in the Jakarta post .
Banda Aceh is the capital of the Aceh province, the only province to apply sharia law in full. In 2014, Aceh passed legislation to extend sharia law to non-Muslims in the province as well.
In total, 34 people were caned in Aceh on Friday, the largest number of people caned on a single day since sharia law went into effect in Aceh.
Most were convicted on charges of gambling. Most offenders were sentenced to between six and eight cane strokes, with some offenders able to choose to serve time in jail for less strokes of the cane. In general, one month in jail cancels out one cane stroke.
“Punishing [miscreants] in front of a crowd has a strong deterrent effect,” said Banda Aceh Mayor Illiza Sa’adudin Djamal, who attended the caning.
The mayor added, “[Now,] the public needs to support and supervise the convicts to help them return to the straight and narrow.”
Friday’s canings represented the largest number of offenders to be caned on a single day since Aceh introduced sharia law as its legal system. Since then, canings have been carried out almost every month in Aceh.
