Two teenagers have been whipped 17 times each after spending months in jail because they were caught hugging in Indonesia’s Aceh province.
A female university student and her boyfriend, both 18, were handed the sentence under strict Sharia law in the province, which forbids intimate displays in public.
The pair were marched on to a stage in front of a mosque in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh before being struck across the back with a bamboo cane.
Afterward, Banda Aceh deputy mayor Zainal Arifin said: ‘People outside of Aceh who think Islamic Sharia is cruel can now see that it is actually very tolerant and humane.’
Hundreds of spectators gathered to watch the punishment being carried out.
