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| The court handed down a heftier sentence for the married woman after she confessed to investigators she had sex out of her marriage (Photo by= AFP/Cek Mad) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] IDI: An Indonesian woman was flogged 100 times on Thursday (Jan 13) in conservative Aceh province for adultery while her male partner, who denied the accusations, received just 15 lashes, AFP reported. Ivan Najjar Alavi, the head of the general investigation division at East Aceh prosecutors office, said the court handed down a heftier sentence for the married woman after she confessed to investigators she had sex out of her marriage.
Judges found it difficult to convict the man, who was then the head of East Aceh fishery agency and also married because he denied all wrongdoings, Alavi added. As an alternative punishment, instead, the judges found the married man guilty of "showing affection to a female partner who is not his wife" after the couple was caught by locals at a palm oil plantation in 2018. He was initially sentenced to 30 lashes but his successful appeal at the Sharia Supreme Court in Aceh reduced the sentence to 15.
Aceh is the only region in Muslim-majority Indonesia to impose Islamic law, which allows whipping for charges including gambling, adultery, drinking alcohol, and gay sex.
