An Indonesian court on Thursday ordered a woman to be flogged 100 times for committing adultery while allowing only 15 lashes for her male partner.?
The incident took place in the conservative Aceh province in Indonesia where the state follows the Sharia law unlike the rest of the country and where public punishments such as lashing are a common practice.
According to AFP, The woman was flogged for having an affair outside her marriage and after she confessed to having a sexual relationship with the man. According to various reports and onlookers, the flogging had to be stopped briefly because the woman couldn't bear the pain.?
Ivan Najjar Alavi, the head of the general investigation division at East Aceh prosecutors office, told the news agency that the court gave the heftier punishment to the married woman after she confessed to investigators that she had sex outside of her marriage.
However, the man, also married, was sentenced to 30 lashes but was flogged just 15 times because the judges couldn't determine if actually committed the crime because he denied all accusations.?
¡°During the trial, he admitted nothing, denying all accusations. Thus, [judges] are not able to prove whether he is guilty,¡± Mr Alavi was quoted by the agency as saying, after the public flogging.
The man, ?the head of East Aceh¡¯s fishery agency, appealed against the charges and was able to safely secure the deal for himself. Thus he was forgone as severe punishment as the woman and was given 15 flogging for showing affection to a woman outside his marriage.?
Many human rights and civil rights groups criticised the flogging saying ¡°cruel and inhumane¡± practice and had asked for its immediate ban as a form of punishment in the country last year.
Aceh unlike the rest of the country follows sharia law as part of its 2005 autonomous deal with the government after a decades-long separatist insurgency and allows whipping for charges including gambling, adultery, drinking alcohol and gay sex.
The couple were caught together by locals at a palm oil plantation in 2018.
With inputs from AFP
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