A 60-year-old woman was on Tuesday, April 12, 2016 subjected to some serious strokes of cane in public for selling alcoholic beverages in the North-West of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island.
A local shariah court in Takengon in Aceh province declared the woman, Remita Sinaga guilty of the offence and ordered that she be given 30 strokes of cane in public.
However, the sentence was reduced to 28 strokes due to time she served in detention for 47 days before the court verdict.
“The convict will receive 28 strokes,’’ the verdict read, which was read out by the court prior to the public caning.
Sinaga was among five offenders of Aceh’s strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law who were caned in front of a crowd. The other four convicts were two couples declared who were guilty for committing adultery.
The first couple, a 19-year-old man and 26-year-old woman, received three strokes each. The second couple, a former village chief in his 40s and a 30-year-old woman, received 100 strokes each.
It was learnt that Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that implements strict sharia law due to its special autonomy status, and public caning is a common punishment for offenders of its sharia bylaws.
