Indonesia Police Beat Couple with Canes for Sharia Crime of Being Alone Together

Islamic sharia law was enforced with canes once again in Indonesia this week, including the cane beatings of a man and woman whose “crime” was being alone together in a guest room.

This was no crazed mob action, either, as CNN reports the sentence was handed down by a judge, and imposed by a special police unit “charged with finding people who violate sharia law.”

“The form of Islamic law is enforced in a very strict way in the area, including prohibiting unmarried people of different genders from being alone together,” CNN observes.

Four other people were caned for gambling at the same public beating in front of a mosque in Banda Aceh.

The UK Daily Mail adds that the “frisky” couple — whose offense involved merely being “close proximity” to each other — were university students.

The young woman, 20-year-old Nur Elita, was marched onto the stage by female “sharia police officers” and forced to kneel for her beating. She screamed in agony as a masked man administered the prescribed five lashes, ended up lying doubled over on the floor in pain, and had to be carried off the stage to an ambulance.

Her male paramour, identified by the UK Independent as 23-year-old Wahyudi Saputra, had to stand for his five lashes.

“Take these punishements as a lesson. What has been done by these convicts should not be taken as example, and I hope their canings today will be the last ever,” intoned the deputy mayor of Banda Aceh, an autonomous province that is currently the only jurisdiction in Indonesia to implement sharia law.