Under religious law, the pair face up to nine strikes of the cane each

The pair then had a bucket of sewage thrown over them

Woman's companion was tied and beaten up while she was raped

An Indonesian widow who was gang-raped by eight 'vigilantes' as punishment for having an affair with a married man, is now to suffer the further indignity of being caned in public.

The rapists caught the couple together when they barged into her house in the northern Indonesian province of Banda Aceh and accused her of having 'improper sexual relations' with the 40-year-old man.

The 25-year-old woman's companion was tied up and beaten, while she was raped repeatedly. Then the two of them were doused with buckets of sewage.

Public punishment: The 25-year-old woman faces up to nine strokes of the cane in Banda Aceh province

It was only after the terrified woman was dragged to a police station by her attackers and reported for breaking strict Sharia laws against extra-marital sex then it was learned she had been raped.

Three of the vigilantes were immediately detained and charged with rape as their companions fled - but that did not prevent police deciding to punish the woman with a caning for breaking religious laws.

'The woman and the man will both be caned because they have violated a religious bylaw on sexual relations,' Mr Ibrahim Latif, head of the Shariah office in the eastern town of Langsa, told the Jakarta Globe.

He said the fact that the woman had been raped would not be taken into consideration in determining the punishment for the religious crime she had allegedly committed.

Mr Ibrahim said the woman and her companion had confessed to having sex on several previous occasions even though the man is married and has five children.

Religious laws: Her 40-year-old companion also faces the public humiliation after being caught having 'improper sexual relations'

Under the religious law, the woman and her lover face up to nine strokes of the cane each - and the punishmen will be carried out in a public place.

The three arrested rapists - who include a 13-year-old boy - would have faced the same number of cane strokes if they had been charged under Shariah law - but they are facing charges in a criminal court.

The hunt continues for the five others.

It is not the first time in Aceh that a woman accused of inappropriate conduct with an 'unrelated male' - her husband - has been summarily raped.

In the same town of Langsa, a 20-year-old university student was raped by three Shariah police officers in January 2010 after being caught riding on a motor cycle with her boyfriend.