42 lashes for drinking: Men are brutally caned for consuming alcohol and violating Sharia law in Indonesia

Three men were brutally beaten 42 times with canes today on the Indonesian island of Sumatra for drinking alcohol and violating Sharia law.

Photos showed an intimidating executioner, or algojo, holding a rattan cane before publicly flogging four men in front of Muslim court officials.

Dressed in brown robes, the algojo struck the convicts with the wooden stick on their backs in the middle of a white-tiled room.

Two of the convicts were seen dressed in white tunics, while the other two wore red tops with the name of the district attorney’s office on them.

They were led to the center of the room and sat on a blue rug, with their heads bowed. Then everyone took turns receiving their punishment.

Photos show an intimidating executioner, an ‘algojo’, holding a rattan cane before publicly beating four men in front of officials at an Islamic court.

Dressed in brown robes, the algojo beat the backs of the convicts with the wooden stick in the center of a white tiled room. One man was hit 42 times

Banda Aceh is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of Aceh and is located on the island of Sumatra, home to the Acehnese.

Aceh is the only province in Indonesia where Sharia law has been introduced. Gambling, alcohol consumption, lesbian, gay and bisexual relationships and sex outside marriage are considered violations of the law.

Penalties for breaking the draconian laws include caning, fines and imprisonment. In 2009, there was a legal attempt to also allow stoning, but this was vetoed by the governor of Aceh.

The four Acehnese men were given 19 to 42 lashes for drinking alcohol, known as ‘khamar’ in Sharia law. A police officer with a microphone supervised the punishments.

The three men who received 42 lashes were named in the local press as M. Fais Akbar, Aulia Syahputra and Yusdi, while Cukri Ramadhan received 19.

Before the punishment was meted out, all men underwent a health check by a team of medics. They were all considered ready to serve their sentences.

The prosecutor then called the convicts one by one into the center of the room, where the floggings were administered.

Kompas reported that the flogging was stopped for one of the men after he groaned in pain after 10 lashes. He was given a drink by the medics, who also checked on his condition, before the punishment continued.

“Today, the execution of the caning of four people convicted of violating the khamar or drunkenness has been completed,” the head of the Banda Aceh District Public Prosecution Service said after the trial.

Supporters of Islamic criminal law argue that such punishments are legal under the special autonomy granted to Aceh.

Two of the men are seen wearing white tunics arriving at the building in Banda Aceh where they were belatedly caned for violating the region’s Sharia law on consuming alcohol.

The four men are seen sitting before Islamic court officials and police ahead of the sentence, which was carried out in the white-tiled room.

Supporters of Islamic criminal law argue that such punishments are legal under the special autonomy granted to Aceh

Critics have called on officials to abolish the use of caning as a punishment, while also objecting to the criminalisation of extramarital sex and homosexuality.

Amnesty International, which has urged the region to end the practice of caning gay men, said 108 canings were carried out in 2015 and 100 in 2016.

According to the Public Prosecution Service, Sharia law was first applied to non-Muslims in 2016, when a Christian woman was sentenced to 28 lashes for selling alcohol.

In 2022, it was reported that a woman had received 100 lashes for adultery, while the man she was having an affair with received only 15 lashes.