(Woman is caned. Photo Credit: News.com.au)
A woman collapsed after being publicly caned for having sex outside marriage in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province in Indonesia.
Photos from the scene show medical and Sharia officers crowding around her after her punishment.
A man was also left on his knees in pain after being caned for adultery.
The two were among eight people sentenced by the Banda Aceh Syar’iyah Court, which handed out up to 100 lashes each for various offences.
The punishments took place on a public stage in the city, watched by a small crowd.
Officers known as algojos, wearing dark robes that cover their faces, used rattan canes.
Caning is used for offences including gambling, drinking alcohol, same sex acts and sex outside marriage.
Officials say the public nature of the punishment is meant to shame offenders as well as punish them.
Convicts often faint, and some are carried away on stretchers.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the practice, saying it breaks Indonesia’s constitution and international law.
They say it is cruel and degrading and can amount to torture.
Local officials defend it as a deterrent and part of the province’s identity, and it has wide support among the mostly Muslim population.
Sharia law was introduced in Aceh in 2002, after the province was granted special autonomy in 2001 in an effort to end a separatist insurgency.
Aceh is the only Indonesian province that applies Islamic law in practice.
In 2018, the province also began public consultations on whether to introduce beheading as a punishment, though the central government has said that would not be allowed under national law.
