TheCable

An Indonesian man working for an organisation which helped draft strict religious laws prescribing corporal punishment for adulterers has himself been whipped after being caught in the act.

The BBC is reporting that Mukhlis bin Muhammad of the Aceh Ulema Council (MPU) was caught having an affair with a married woman.

He was flogged 28 times with a rattan cane in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh on Thursday, while his married companion was caned 23 times.

“This is God’s law. Anyone must be flogged if proven guilty, even if he is a member of the MPU,” Husaini Wahab, the deputy mayor of Aceh Besar district, where Mukhlis lives, told the BBC.

The duo were repeatedly caught in September involving in adultery in a car parked near a tourist beach.

The BBC quoted Wahab as saying the Islamic leader would be expelled from the MPU.

The 46-year-old is said to be the first religious leader to be publicly caned in the region since Sharia law came into force in 2005.

Flogging is a common punishment for a range of offences in the deeply conservative Aceh region on Sumatra Island, including drinking alcohol, and having gay or pre-marital sex.

The organisation that Mukhlis worked for had advised the government and legislature on drafting and implementing Aceh’s religious law, including public flogging.