
An Indonesian man working for an organisation which helped draft strict religious laws ordering adulterers to be flogged has himself been whipped after he was caught having an affair with a married woman.

Mukhlis, who is a member of the Aceh Ulema Council and only goes under one name like many Indonesians, was beaten 28 times with a rattan cane in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh on Thursday.

Mukhlis grimaced and flinched during the punishment, before his married companion was brought to the stage and flogged some 23 times.

Mukhlis, who is a member of the Aceh Ulema Council which helped draft the province's harsh Sharia Law code, is flogged under that code after he was caught having an affair with a married woman

Mukhlis was beaten 28 times with a rattan cane in front of the mosque in regional capital Banda Aceh on Thursday, wincing and grimacing as he was struck across the shoulders

His female companion was then brought up on stage, where she was beaten 23 times. Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that uses Sharia punishments

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.

The organisation that Mukhlis works for advised the local government and legislature on drafting and implementing Aceh's religious law, including public flogging.

Flogging a council member underlined the commitment to enforcing Islamic law, said Aceh Besar deputy regent Husaini Wahab.

'No matter who you are... if you violate (Islamic) law you will be whipped,' he told reporters after the punishment.

Mukhlis would likely be sacked under his employer's moral code, Wahab added.

The council made headlines this summer when it hit out at plans to form a women's football league because Aceh did not have a special stadium where only women players, match officials and spectators could be present.

Local officials said that Mukhlis' beating proves that nobody is above the law in Aceh, and that he would likely be fired by his employer because of its strict moral code

A woman prepares to be whipped in public by a member of the Sharia police in Banda Aceh on October 31, 2019, after being caught having an affair with Aceh Ulema Council member Mukhlis

This picture, taken on October 23, shows Mukhlis (left) and the woman with whom he had the affair (right) being sentenced to public caning by the region's Sharia court

In June, it issued a fatwa, or religious edict, against online game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, saying it insulted Islam and made addicted players violent.

Also Thursday, a female university student was flogged a dozen times after she was caught spending the night in a boarding house with a man, who escaped punishment because he was underage.

Dozens of onlookers watched the floggings, with some recording them on their mobile phones.

'I was just curious to see how it was carried out,' said spectator Robbi.

In July, three people were flogged 100 times each for having premarital sex, while last year two men caught having sex with underage girls were also whipped 100 times.

Rights groups have slammed public caning as a cruel and inhuman punishment, and Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has called for it to end.

But the practice has wide support among Aceh's mostly Muslim population.