Indonesia religious body staffer falls foul of own laws
An Indonesian man working for an organisation which helped draft strict religious laws ordering adulterers to be flogged was himself publically whipped yesterday after he was caught having an affair with a married woman. On Thursday, a masked religious officer rained down 28 lashes on the back of Aceh Ulema Council (MPU) member Mukhlis after he was caught canoodling with a married woman last month. Flogging is a common punishment for a range of offences in the deeply conservative Aceh region on Sumatra island, including adultery, drinking alcohol, and having gay or pre-marital sex. Aceh is the only region in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation that imposes Islamic law, part of a 2005 autonomy deal with the central government that ended a decades-long separatist insurgency.
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