Indonesian Couple Receives 21 Lashes Each for Kissing on TikTok Livestream

A 22-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman each received 21 lashes in public on Thursday in Banda Aceh after an Islamic Sharia court convicted them of kissing during a TikTok livestream. The couple had been detained in March after residents reported the video, which showed the pair inside a car. Officials said the livestream violated local morality laws in Aceh province.

Background on the Case The pair had already spent four months in prison before the caning. Their sentence was reduced from 25 lashes to 21, according to The Associated Press. Authorities confiscated a cellphone and a USB flash drive containing the video and said the items would be destroyed.

" — Aini Nadhirah, July 2, 2026 (AP) Aceh is the only Indonesian province that enforces its own Islamic Criminal Code on moral conduct. The central government granted the province that authority around 2005 as part of a peace deal ending a separatist insurgency.

The same laws allow up to 100 lashes for offenses including adultery and same-sex relations. Caning is also applied for gambling, drinking, and premarital intimacy. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International Indonesia, have criticized public caning as cruel and degrading.

Aceh authorities maintain the practice does not violate international conventions against cruel punishment.