Jakarta – Construction workers on a public housing project in Kajhu Village in Aceh Besar, Aceh, were shocked to find 45 body bags bodies believed to be victims of the 2004 tsunami as they were excavating to build a septic tank.
The workers said they did no know that part of the land for the housing project was actually a mass grave.
Banda Aceh Mayor Aminullah Usman says he will revoke the business licenses of hotels in Banda Aceh that provide facilities for people to celebrate New Year.
John McBeth, Jakarta – He has fallen a long way since evolving from an independence fighter into Aceh's first democratically elected two-term governor, but Irwandi Yusuf's shock indictment on corruption charges throws light on the ugly political underbelly of a province that once earned sympathy around the world.
East Aceh, Indonesia – A group of men caught gambling were publicly whipped in Indonesia's conservative Muslim province of Aceh on Tuesday as a crowd of onlookers cheered.
The half dozen men were arrested this year at an internet cafe for online gambling – an offence under Islamic law – earning them between seven and 11 strokes each from a rattan cane.
Aceh is the only province in Indonesia given special autonomy to implement sharia-based laws. Leaning towards the conservative side of Islam, Aceh enforces a strict dress-code, with women usually being on the receiving end of discriminative laws that require them to wear hijab (headscarves) and prohibits clothing such as jeans.
Banda Aceh (AFP) – A village in a conservative region of Indonesia is pulling the plug on wireless Internet after children were caught accessing porn sites instead of going to Quran study class, officials said on Monday (Nov 26).
Curee Baroh village in Aceh province has ordered half a dozen local cafes to shut their cheap Wi-Fi service immediately.
Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Village leaders of Curee Baroh in Simpang Mamplam district, Bireun regency, Aceh, have issued a circular that calls on all cafes to remove access to free Wi-Fi, which they have blamed for distracting children from their studies and Quran recital sessions.
Kharishar Kahfi, Jakarta – Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prosecutors indicted suspended Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf on Monday in three separate corruption cases.
A village in the Indonesian province of Aceh – the only region in Indonesia with special autonomy to enact religious bylaws – is saving its children from the worldly distractions that are coffee and Wi-Fi.
In Indonesia's highly conservative province of Aceh, locals often take the law into their own hands. While the province's self-appointed moral vigilantes often target young unmarried couples or people they suspect of being LGBT with the tacit support of police, in this latest incident of vigilante justice, the target was the police.
Jakarta – The Aceh branch of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has emphasized its support for the government's measles and rubella (MR) immunization drive in the conservative Muslim province.
The government's much-delayed measles-rubella (MR) vaccine drive now has the full backing of provincial administrations throughout the country – the last hold out being the ultra-conservative province of Aceh – though it remains to be seen if the backing of the regional governments will be able to overcome religious-based anti-vaccine paranoia.
Carly Read – The woman, who has not been not named, was barbarically punished as a crowd gathered and watched on in horror in Aceh, located north-west of Sumatra.
The Indonesian government's current nationwide drive to administer the measles-rubella (MR) vaccine to 32 million children has hit major obstacles due to fear among Muslim parents that the vaccine contains "haram" ingredients, leading officials to warn of a possibly devastating MR epidemic on the horizon.
The Indonesian government is still undertaking a massive nationwide drive to administer the measles-rubella vaccine to millions of children across the archipelago, but concerns over non-halal components in the vaccine have proven to be a huge impediment to their efforts, particularly in the ultra-conservative province of Aceh where the government has only reached around 7% of their
In Aceh, the only province in Indonesia allowed to implement Islamic sharia based laws, women have often become victims of discrimination in the name of religion.
That continues to be the case in the Bireuen Regency of Aceh, which recently passed a number of new regulations for cafes operating in the area.
Apriadi Gunawan and Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The Bireuen regency administration in Aceh province has issued a circular asking coffee shops, cafes and restaurants to ensure that male and female customers who are not married or related to one another do not sit at the same table together.
Banda Aceh – A district in Indonesia's deeply Islamic Aceh province has banned men and women from dining together unless they are married or related, according to an official who said it would help women be "more well behaved".
Agus Setyadi, Aceh – Bireuen regent Saifannur has issued a new regulation on the "standardisation" of coffee shops, cafes and restaurants in the regency in accordance with Sharia law.
In one of the points, it states that it is haram (forbidden under Islamic law) for men and women to eat at the same table unless they are muhrim – lawfully married or related.
A few months ago, the (literally) shitty punishment forced on a couple accused of allegedly getting intimate out of wedlock in Aceh shocked and disgusted the world, even by the ultra conservative province's standards. A new incident shows that punishment was not an isolated act of mob justice.
Jakarta – Prospective legislative candidates in Lhokseumawe, Aceh, participated in a Quran recitation test on Monday to meet the requirements to run in the 2019 general election.
Euan McKirdy – As many as 15 people, including five women, were punished with public caning Friday for violating Sharia law in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province.
Two men accused of being gay received 87 lashes each for gay sex, while nine others were sentenced up to 26 lashes for adultery. Four people, one of whom is female, were lashed 27 times for being drunk.
Reuters, Banda Aceh – Indonesia's ultra-conservative Aceh province held a public caning of 15 people on Friday (13/07), including of two men who received 87 lashes each for having gay sex, despite an earlier pledge to restrict access and only hold caning inside prisons.
A gay couple was publicly whipped in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province Friday, despite an earlier pledge by officials to stop the punishment after it drew international criticism.
The two men were flogged more than 80 times each for having gay sex, which is outlawed under local Islamic law, as a jeering crowd hurled abuse at them.
Devina Heriyanto, Jakarta – Aceh province is again in the news following the arrest of Governor Irwandi Yusuf on corruption allegations on Tuesday evening.
Jakarta – An unidentified person threw Molotov cocktails at the office of Aceh-based tabloid newspaper Modus in Gampong Berauwe, Aceh, on Saturday.
There were no casualties reported but the building suffered from minor damages.
Krithika Varagur, Bireuen – The 79 Rohingya refugees who set off on a boat from Myanmar's Rakhine state last month were terrified when they were intercepted and redirected by Thailand's navy.
Washing up on the shores of a country they were not expecting seemed, at first, like yet another blow.
Apriadi Gunawan, Medan, North Sumatra – Environment watchdog Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI) is calling on the government to immediately stop illegal crude oil drilling activities in Aceh, following a fire at an illegal oil well in Peureulak, East Aceh, early on Wednesday that killed 11 people.
Iffah Nur Arifah – The decision of the Aceh Provincial Government in Indonesia to move flogging from public into more closed spaces has drawn resistance from the public and the local parliament.
On April 12, Aceh's governor Irwandi Yusuf signed a new rule to ban the whipping of criminals in public.
A group of amorous couples and alleged sex workers were publicly whipped for breaking Islamic law in Indonesia's Aceh Friday, just a week after the province pledged to move the widely condemned practice indoors.
Heri Juanda, Banda Aceh, Indonesia – Indonesia's deeply conservative Aceh province on Friday caned several unmarried couples for showing affection in public and two women for prostitution before an enthusiastic audience of hundreds.
Banda Aceh, Indonesia – Indonesia's conservative Aceh province will no longer allow canings for violations of Shariah law to be carried out in public, its governor said Thursday, apparently in response to international condemnation of the caning last year of two men for gay sex that damaged Indonesia's moderate image.
Indonesia's Aceh province will stop caning criminals in public after a wave of international condemnation of the practice, local officials said Thursday.
Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – The sharia-based provincial government of Aceh has issued a gubernatorial regulation ending the practice of caning convicts in public.
Banda Aceh, Indonesia – Rights activists called on Tuesday for Indonesia's Aceh province to release four people detained on suspicion of having homosexual sex, amid concerns over the persecution of the LGBT community in the world's third-largest democracy.
Jakarta – Indonesian authorities should immediately and unconditionally release four people detained in Aceh under a local ordinance that criminalizes same-sex conduct, Human Rights Watch said today. Under Aceh's Islamic Criminal Code, they face up to 100 lashes in public – a punishment that constitutes torture under international human rights law.
Josh Jackman – Two Indonesian men have been arrested for having gay sex. The university students had their rooms raided by residents in Aceh, the only region of the Muslim-majority country where Shariah law is in effect and gay sex is illegal.
Shannon Power – Vigilantes have once again raided the private residence of people they suspect to be LGBTI in Indonesia.
Last week, the vigilantes raided a boarding house where the two men were spending time together. The mob arrested them because they thought they were gay and then handed them over to police.
Anne Barker – Transgender women in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province are losing their jobs and incomes in the wake of police raids that saw several beauty salons shut down.
Datuk Haris Maulana, Aceh – Since the armed conflict broke out up until a peace agreement was reached, to this day Aceh still does not have any cinemas. People from Tanah Rencong – as Aceh is known – who want to watch the latest films have to leave Aceh or wait until they are released on movie websites.
Jakarta – The central government has warned the Aceh administration against introducing beheading as a punishment for murder under its sharia law system, saying the province did not have the legal authority to do so.
Jakarta – The head of the Sharia and Human Rights Division at Aceh's Sharia Agency, Syukri Yusuf, denies having said that the province was going to implement beheading as a punishment for murder.
In a statement made available Friday, Syukri clarified the matter related to qisas, or retributive law.
Anne Barker – Amnesty International has urged Indonesia to step in and block moves to introduce beheading as a punishment for murder in the country's conservative Aceh province.
The argument that beheading has a deterrent effect on crime is baseless and unacceptable, the human rights organisation said.
Jakarta – The conservative Indonesian province of Aceh – known for publicly caning gay people, adulterers and gamblers – is considering the introduction of beheading as a punishment for murder, a top Islamic law official said on Wednesday.
Ihsan Dalimunthe & Dika Dania Kardi, Jakarta – The Indonesian Ulama Council's (MUI) Religious Outreach Commission chairperson, Cholil Nafis, agrees with a plan to apply beheadings (hukum pancung, qisas) for murderers whihh is currently being considered by the Aceh Islamic Law Office.
Vigilantism in the name of ultra-conservative morality continues unabated in Aceh, the only province of Indonesia given special autonomy to enact sharia-based laws. The latest incident involves a man and a transwoman who were rounded up by self-appointed moral police after being accused of prostitution.
Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – A man identified as N and a transgender person identified as M were arrested for allegedly being intimate in a beauty salon in Emperum, Banda Aceh.
They allegedly had sex, which is a crime punishable by up to 100 lashes according to local sharia law.
Agus Setyadi, ace – The Aceh Islam Law Office (DSI) is debating the application of Qisas – retributive justice – for perpetrators of crimes such as murder in order to push down crime rates which have been rising of late.
All over the world, the rights of trans people – to be free from torture, inhumane or degrading treatment, the right to freedom of expression, a private life, and protection from discrimination – are disregarded and discarded.
As the only province in Indonesia that is allowed to enact explicitly sharia-based laws, Aceh criminalizes everything from selling alcohol to homosexuality to adultery and even the simple act of two unmarried people of the opposite sex being too close to each other.