Indonesian Couple Each Flogged 100 Times for Premarital Sex in Aceh

In a public display of punishment in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province, a couple was subjected to 100 lashes each. The caning took place on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in a public park in Banda Aceh, drawing a crowd of observers.

Neither the man nor the woman involved, whose identities and ages were not provided, received any leniency in their sentences. Both were administered the full 100 lashes with a rattan cane.

Aceh stands as the sole Indonesian province that implements a form of Sharia law, which strictly prohibits sexual relations between individuals who are not married.

"We implement Islamic law in Aceh, so whenever someone violates it, we have to carry out punishments like the caning we just conducted,” an official from the local prosecutors’ office, Rajesh Kana, informed AFP.

The couple were among a total of six individuals who faced corporal punishment during the event. The remaining four received between eight and 29 lashes for various infractions, including inappropriate physical contact with someone of the opposite sex and the consumption of alcohol.

One woman, sentenced to 27 lashes, fainted after receiving her final stroke and required immediate medical attention from paramedics at the scene.

Caning is a common form of punishment in Aceh and is applied to a range of offenses, such as gambling and same-sex relations.

This event follows a particularly harsh instance in January of the same year, where an unmarried couple received 140 lashes each, marking one of the most severe penalties since Sharia law was introduced in 2015.

Indonesia, while being the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, officially recognizes six different religions along with indigenous belief systems.