Two Indonesian ladies publicly whipped almost 100 times each for selling sex workers’ services online, an official within the nation’s conservative Aceh province mentioned on Tuesday.
Aceh, at the tip of Sumatra, is the only area in Muslim-majority Indonesia to impose Islamic sharia regulation, which permits flogging for a variety of offences together with prostitution, gambling, adultery, consuming alcohol, and homosexual intercourse.
The punishment was handed down on Monday in Langsa city where dozens gathered to observe the pair get lashed, regardless of bans on crowds over coronavirus fears.
Neither of the ladies wore disposable face masks, in contrast to in some other latest whippings.
The 2 hijab-wearing suspects arrested in March together with 5 sex workers, who might additionally face a flogging if found guilty of violating Islamic law, mentioned Aji Asmanuddin, head of Langsa’s Islamic sharia agency.
“They were punished for violating sharia by advertising (sex) through the internet,” Asmanuddin mentioned.
Officials had been struggling to crack down on the area’s booming online sex trade, he added.
“This is the first (pimping) case in Langsa although we believe there are many of them out there,” Asmanuddin mentioned.
“We just don’t have the necessary tools to monitor them online.”
Rights groups have slammed public caning as merciless, and Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo called for it to end.
However the practice has wide support amongst Aceh’s principally Muslim population.
