Aceh canes four for sex outside marriage

Officials in Indonesia's Aceh province publicly caned two women and two men 100 strokes each on Thursday for engaging in sex outside marriage.

The flogging took place in a public park in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, with dozens of people watching. An AFP reporter witnessed the punishment.

Four other people received 22 lashes each for the lesser offence of physical intimacy, which can include hugging and kissing. Two others received seven lashes each for getting too close to one another, which can include holding hands, and a man was flogged 20 times for consuming alcohol.

Aceh is Indonesia's only province to apply a version of Sharia Islamic law. It has had the system in force since 2002, with stricter rules introduced in 2015.

Caning is not a legal form of punishment elsewhere in Indonesia, but it retains strong support in Aceh for offences including gambling and gay sex. Aceh has special autonomy under a 2005 peace deal that ended a 30-year separatist insurgency.