Four people flogged in public for having sex outside marriage

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JAKARTA - Islamic officials in Indonesia's staunchly Sharia Aceh province publicly flogged two women and two men on Thursday for having sex outside of marriage, an AFP reporter witnessed.

All dressed in white, the four winced and groaned as they received 100 lashes each with a rattan stick in front of dozens of onlookers in a public park in the provincial capital Banda Aceh.

"The women are sex workers, and the men are their customers," Muhammad Rizal, the head of Aceh's Islamic police force, told AFP.

Sex between people not married to each other is outlawed in Aceh, the county's only region to apply a version of Sharia law.

Five other people were also caned Thursday, receiving between nine and 23 lashes each for crimes including being in the proximity of a member of the opposite sex and drinking alcohol.

Caning, though not a legal form of punishment in Indonesia, retains strong support in Aceh to punish a range of offences that also include gambling and gay sex.

In January, Sharia police flogged an unmarried couple 140 times each -- likely the severest punishment since 2015, when a stricter form of Islamic law started to be applied in the province that enjoys a special autonomy.

Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim-majority country, but officially recognises six religions as well as indigenous beliefs.