(26 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Banda Aceh, Indonesia – 26 August 2025
1. Mid of car arriving carrying people convicted of violating Islamic law
2. People convicted of violating Islamic law in handcuffs arriving for caning
3. Various of security officials at briefing
4. Mid of sunlight seen through foliage
5. Wide of people convicted of violating Islamic law being brought on stage
6. Various of religious preacher giving sermon next to people convicted of violating Islamic law
7. SOUNDBITE (Indonesian) Maidina Rahmawati, acting executive director of the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform in Indonesia:
"That public caning, even the act of caning itself, is contrary to various laws and regulations and also contrary to human rights interests in Indonesia because its exposure is not good for Indonesia."
8. Convicted man stands on stage next to hooded person holding cane, officials gathered
9. Wide view of man being caned on stage
10. Mid of spectators sat on floor
11. Close of girl filming on mobile phone
12. SOUNDBITE (Indonesian) Aulia Saputra, local resident:
"I hope that with the implementation of this caning punishment, it can serve as a lesson for the offender and also create a deterrent effect (for the people), so that such incidents do not happen again in the future.”
13. Mid of official counting number of lashes
14. Wide view of man being caned on stage
STORYLINE:
Two men in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province were among a group of people publicly caned on Tuesday after an Islamic Shariah court convicted them of violating Islamic law by hugging and kissing, which the court ruled can lead to banned sexual relations.
An audience of about 100 people witnessed the caning on a stage in Bustanussalatin city park in Banda Aceh on Tuesday.
The men, aged 20 and 21, were whipped across their backs with a rattan cane dozens of times by a group of people wearing robes and hoods.
Aceh allows up to 100 lashes for morality offenses including gay sex and sex between unmarried people.
Caning is also a punishment in Aceh for gambling, drinking alcohol, women who wear tight clothes and men who do not attend Friday prayers.
The court in Aceh sentenced the men to 80 strikes each after Islamic religious police said they caught them engaged in what the court deemed were the sexual acts of hugging and kissing in a bathroom of a public park, court records said.
Eight other people were publicly caned Tuesday for adultery and gambling.
The men were arrested in April at Taman Sari city park in Banda Aceh after residents told a police patrol they saw the men enter the same park bathroom.
The police found the men inside kissing and hugging.
Prior to meeting in the park, the pair made contact through an online dating app, court records said.
Aceh is the only province in Indonesia to practice Shariah law.
There have been four previous canings for cases related to homosexuality since the province implemented Islamic law and established a religious police and court system in 2006.
The change was a concession by the national government to end a long-running separatist uprising.
Indonesia’s national criminal code does not regulate homosexuality but the central government cannot strike down Shariah law in Aceh.
However, the central government previously pressured Aceh officials to drop an earlier version of a law calling for people to be stoned to death for adultery.
Aceh expanded its Islamic bylaws and criminal code in 2015, extending Shariah law to non-Muslims, who account for about 1% of the province’s population.
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