The couple, a 22-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman, each received 21 strokes with a rattan cane before a crowd of more than 100 people at Bustanussalatin City Park in Banda Aceh. The punishment was carried out by executioners wearing robes and hoods, in accordance with local procedures.

The pair were arrested in April after a livestream recorded on Feb. 27 showing them kissing inside a car in Banda Aceh went viral on TikTok and prompted complaints to Aceh’s Sharia enforcement authorities.

Aceh’s Sharia court initially sentenced both individuals to 25 lashes. The punishment was later reduced to 21 strokes after the court credited the approximately four months they had already spent in detention.

The court also ordered the confiscation and destruction of a mobile phone and a USB flash drive containing the livestream that was presented as evidence during the proceedings.

Aceh is the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia authorized to enforce a regional version of Islamic law. The Indonesian central government granted the province special autonomy in 2006 as part of a peace agreement that ended decades of separatist conflict.

In 2015, Aceh expanded the application of its Islamic criminal code to include non-Muslims, who make up about 1% of the province’s population.

Under the province’s Sharia regulations, punishments including public caning may be imposed for a range of offenses such as adultery, gambling, alcohol consumption and same-sex relations. Local rules also allow penalties for other morality-related violations, including women wearing tight clothing and Muslim men who fail to attend Friday prayers.

Authorities also publicly caned four other individuals on Thursday after convictions for online gambling and adultery.

The punishments drew criticism from Amnesty International Indonesia, which said public caning violates international human rights standards. Executive Director Usman Hamid said while the conduct shown in the livestream could be regarded as inappropriate because it was publicly accessible, imposing imprisonment and corporal punishment was excessive.

Indonesia has ratified international conventions that call for the elimination of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, Amnesty International Indonesia noted.

Some local residents supported the sentence. Aini Nadhirah, a 22-year-old resident of Banda Aceh who attended the public punishment, said the caning would serve as a warning to others and encourage more responsible use of social media.

Public caning remains a defining feature of Aceh’s legal system and continues to attract scrutiny from domestic and international human rights organizations, while provincial authorities maintain that the penalties are consistent with the region’s special autonomous status and locally enacted Islamic laws.