Corpun file 16854

Pravda, Moscow, 19 August 2005

Female gamblers caned in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) _ Indonesia caned women Friday for the first time after they were accused of illegal gambling in the staunchly conservative province of Aceh.

More than 1,000 people gathered after Friday prayers to watch as four women were struck in the back with rattan canes, each receiving seven blows, Alias Abubakar, an official in the central town of Takengon told private-radio El-Shinta.

Authorities confiscated 65,000 rupiah (US$7) from the women, who were found guilty of betting on card games, he said.

Aceh is the only province in Muslim Indonesia that has implemented Shariah, or Islamic law.

The region enjoys semiautonomy from the central government because of a long-running separatist war that -- everyone hopes -- ended with the signing of a peace agreement Monday in Finland.

Indonesia has a policy of secularism, and attempts by religious hard-liners to have Islamic law, including corporal punishment, adopted nationally have failed.
The first caning in Aceh occurred in June, with the flogging of 15 men convicted of gambling, the AP reports.

Corpun file 16377

Gulf Times, Doha, Qatar, 20 August 2005

Court flogs four women for gambling

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia: An Islamic shariah court in Indonesia's staunchly-Muslim Aceh province yesterday ordered four women to be flogged for petty gambling offences.

The public lashing was the second since the Indonesian government allowed the western province to implement religious law as part of broader autonomy granted in 2001 to curb a separatist Islamist insurgency.

The four women were found guilty of gambling by the court on Thursday and flogged on a covered podium erected next to a mosque in Takengon, Central Aceh, after Friday noon prayers. The four women, who were dressed in white and sitting on the floor, were each given between six and seven lashes.

The flogging was the first involving women but the second ordered recently for gambling offences in Aceh. The four women were found guilty of playing cards for small amounts of money. In May, seven men also found guilty of playing cards for money were publicly lashed in Aceh's Bireuen district.-AFP

Corpun file 16398

Jakarta Post, 29 August 2005

Rights group condemns caning of two women in Aceh for violating Islamic law

JAKARTA (AP): A leading human rights group on Sunday condemned as "insane" an Islamic court's caning of two unmarried couples in Aceh province for drinking alcohol and being alone together after dark.

They were the latest Aceh residents to fall foul of new regulations that give the staunchly Muslim province the right to impose a version of Islamic Shariah law.

The women fainted after being beaten 40 times on Friday outside a mosque in central Aceh, witnesses said. They were taken to a hospital, but had no serious injuries.

"We protest this insane sentence, and it should be reviewed by the Supreme Court," said Ifdhal Kasim of the rights organization ELSHAM. "It violates Indonesia's constitution that outlaws corporal punishment, torture and humiliation (of prisoners)."

The four were arrested late at night last month and found guilty by an Islamic court of violating laws prohibiting the consumption of alcohol and unmarried couples being together in private places. It was not clear where they were detained.

The latter law is aimed at preventing premarital sex, seen as sin in Islam.

Aceh is the only province Indonesia that has implemented Shariah. The first caning in Aceh occurred in June, with the flogging of 15 men convicted of gambling.