Province agrees to halt caning in public for Shariah law violations

Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province will no longer allow canings for violations of Shariah law to be carried out in public, its governor said.

The move was apparently in response to international condemnation of the caning last year of two men for gay sex.

A memorandum of understanding signed by Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf and Yuspahruddin, head of the provincial Law and Human Rights office, stipulates that caning can only take place inside prisons or other places of detention.

It says adults can still witness the punishment but recording will not be allowed. The numbers of people will be much smaller than the hundreds who regularly cheered the outdoor proceedings.

“The aim of holding the caning inside prison is to prevent it from being watched by children, without cameras and hand phones,” Mr Irwandi said.

Human Rights Watch called for Aceh to abolish caning and the laws that allow it. It said caning remains a form of torture, whether it is carried out in public or not.

“Torture is torture whether you do it in public, outside a mosque after Friday prayers, or inside a room, banning anyone from taking a picture,” said the group’s Indonesia researcher Andreas Harsono.

Human Rights Watch also appealed for Aceh to release four people arrested in March for same-sex conduct, who each face up to 100 lashes.

Aceh is the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia that practises Shariah law, a concession made by the central government in 2001 as part of efforts to end a decades-long war for independence.