Overview
- The couple, a 22-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman, were each caned 21 times on a stage in Bustanussalatin City Park in Banda Aceh in a public ceremony witnessed by about 100 people.
- The punishment followed a Feb. 27 TikTok livestream of the pair kissing that went viral, their arrest in April and a Sharia court sentence that was cut from 25 lashes to 21 because they had spent roughly four months in custody.
- Local sharia police said this was the first known enforcement in Aceh based on social-media evidence and ordered the seized phone and USB drive containing the video to be destroyed.
- Amnesty International and other rights groups condemned the caning as cruel, inhuman and degrading, said it breaches Indonesia’s obligations under the UN Convention Against Torture, and called for repeal of laws that permit corporal punishment.
- The case highlights a long-running tension in Aceh, the only Indonesian province that enforces the Islamic Criminal Code allowing up to 100 lashes for morality offences, and raises concerns about growing digital surveillance and wider legal and diplomatic pressure on Jakarta.