Aceh court orders public flogging of couple for TikTok kiss

A young couple in Indonesia’s Aceh province were publicly flogged on Thursday, July 2, after a Sharia court found them guilty of violating local morality laws for kissing during a TikTok livestream. The 22-year-old man and 25-year-old woman each received 21 cane lashes on a stage in Bustanussalatin City Park in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, as around a hundred onlookers witnessed the punishment, some reportedly urging the executioners to strike harder.

The couple was arrested in April after a livestream from February 27 showing them kissing inside a car went viral, prompting complaints to Aceh’s religious police. Authorities cited the act as a clear violation of Islamic Sharia, which forbids physical intimacy between unmarried individuals in the region. The court initially sentenced each to 25 lashes but reduced the penalty to 21 due to the four months they had already spent in custody awaiting trial. Judges also ordered the confiscation and destruction of a mobile phone and USB drive containing the video footage.

Aceh is the only province in Indonesia authorized to enforce a version of Islamic law, a right granted by the secular central government in 2006 as part of a...