Indonesian couple publicly caned after kissing on TikTok livestream

The livestream and arrest

On 27 February, a 22-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman kissed during a TikTok livestream from a car in Banda Aceh. The video quickly went viral, prompting a report to local Sharia authorities. The couple was arrested in April and charged with violating Islamic morality laws for physical intimacy while unmarried.

Muhammad Rizal, head of the Sharia police in Banda Aceh, told reporters this was the first case in the religiously conservative province in which people were sanctioned for breaking Islamic law through social media.

They clearly violated Islamic sharia. It was the first time that people were sanctioned for breaking Islamic law via social media.

The caning

On 2 July, the punishment was carried out on a stage in Bustanussalatin City Park in Banda Aceh before at least a hundred spectators. Individuals in robes and hoods administered 21 strokes with a rattan cane to each of the pair. The original sentence of 25 lashes had been reduced because they had already spent four months in detention.

Four other people were caned the same day: another couple received 27 strokes each for physical intimacy, and two men received 29 and 8 strokes for online gambling.

Bobbi Sandri, head of the public prosecutor's office, said the public canings are intended to deter others from violating the province's religious regulations.

Aceh's Sharia law

Aceh, at the northwestern tip of Sumatra, is the only province in Muslim-majority Indonesia that applies a version of Islamic criminal law. The central government granted the province special autonomy and the right to introduce religious legislation in 2006 as part of a peace deal ending a decades-long separatist conflict. The law was extended to non-Muslims in 2015.

Under the Qanun Jinayat (Islamic criminal code), caning is a prescribed punishment for offences including extramarital sex, alcohol consumption, gambling, and same-sex relations. In recent years, courts have handed down sentences of up to 100 lashes. In January 2026 a couple received more than 100 strokes each for sex outside marriage and drinking; the woman fainted and was taken away by ambulance. In August 2025 two young men were sentenced to 80 strokes each for hugging and kissing in a public bathroom.

Condemnation

Amnesty International Indonesia called the caning a violation of human rights. Spokesperson Haeril Halim described the punishment as a frightening act of discrimination that extends the reach of Aceh's Islamic criminal code into the digital sphere.

This shows that Aceh's Islamic criminal code has extended its reach to target peaceful expressions in the digital sphere, with the flogging of this young couple.

Executive Director Usman Hamid argued the behaviour, while perhaps inappropriate on a platform viewed by all ages, did not warrant imprisonment or caning. Amnesty has long urged Indonesia to abolish flogging, saying it violates the international prohibition on torture under the ICCPR, which Indonesia has ratified.