Couple flogged 21 times in front of crowd after kissing during TikTok livestream

A young couple who posted themselves snogging on the social media site TikTok were publicly caned after being seen to have broken strict Sharia law policies

A young couple were publicly flogged after sharing a kiss during a TikTok livestream in one of the world’s strictest regions governed by Islamic law.

The pair, a 22-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman, were each caned 21 times after a Sharia court in Indonesia’s Aceh province found them guilty of violating the region’s brutality strict morality laws.

Around 100 people are believed to have gathered to watch the savage punishment. It took place on a stage in Bustanussalatin City Park in Banda Aceh and was carried out by hooded officials dressed in robes that carried out the caning using specialised rattan canes.

The couple were arrested in April after footage from a TikTok livestream, filmed inside a car on February 27, went viral. The video showed the pair kissing, prompting complaints to Aceh’s religious police, according to the Guardian.

Although they were originally sentenced to 25 lashes each, the punishment was reportedly reduced to 21 because they had already spent four months in custody awaiting trial. Judges also ordered a mobile phone and USB drive containing the TikTok footage to be confiscated and destroyed.

Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that enforces Sharia law. Under the region’s legal system, unmarried couples can be punished for intimate behaviour, while offences including adultery, gambling, drinking alcohol and same-sex relationships can also carry public caning sentences.

Four other people were also publicly caned on the same day after being convicted of offences including online gambling and adultery. Responding to the caning, Amnesty International’s Co-Regional Director Montse Ferrer said:

“Today’s public caning of a young man and woman simply for kissing is a horrifying act of discrimination, and a grim reminder of the enduring human rights violations permitted under the Islamic Criminal Code in Indonesia’s Aceh province.

“The punishment shows how authorities are expanding their use of Sharia law to target peaceful expression online, as well as offline. Sharia police in Aceh appear to be intensifying digital monitoring efforts as they seek to punish acts deemed to violate Sharia law, including public displays of intimacy outside marriage.

“Caning is an inherently cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment that frequently crosses the threshold into torture. Indonesia’s authorities must end the criminalization of consensual intimacy and repeal all discriminatory bylaws that permit corporal punishment.

“Indonesia, as a member of the UN Human Rights Council and a state party to the Convention Against Torture, must align its laws – including in Aceh – with its constitutional commitments to equality and non-discrimination. Corporal punishment has no place in a just and humane society.”

Caning is employed as a penalty for a variety of offences, including gambling, consuming alcohol, homosexual acts and having sexual relations outside marriage.

The incident follows an even more brutal lashing last month, which saw a woman faint from pain after she and her partner were each subjected to 100 lashes for engaging in premarital sex. The unidentified woman had to be carried away following the public caning, also in Banda Aceh.

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