In 2005, the Indonesian government granted the region of Aceh special autonomy to enact sharia-based laws (as part of a peace agreement to quell the region’s separatist movement). Since then, the Aceh government has enacted and enforced increasingly strict and ultra-conservative statues, ranging from mandatory dress codes to public caning punishments for adultery and homosexuality.
Now, the Office of the Islamic Sharia in Aceh says they are discussing introducing a new extreme punishment for murderers – beheadings, similar to those currently done publicly in Saudi Arabia.
Dr Syukri, the office’s head of the development and human rights (snort), said that the agency was conducting research regarding the implementation of the brutal execution method as well as surveying the community to gauge their support for the punishment. Depending on the outcome, he said that it could be drafted into law.
According to Syukri, the number of murders in Aceh have been on the rise recently and argued that sharia law, if consistently applied, would cause criminal cases such as murder to disappear. He pointed to Saudi Arabia as an example of this.
“If the punishment for the killer is applied so heavily, then people will refrain from killing.When people are afraid to kill, the lives of others and then all human lives will be saved, as well as that of the perpetrator themselves,” Syukri said as quoted by Detik.
Syukri said the current punishments for murder were relatively mild and even allowed for killers to go free after their jail sentence, allowing them to commit their crimes again.
However, he was also careful to say that the Aceh government would not rush its implementation of the practice.
“It is still under discussion, we will do the research first in this year. We do not want to be reckless or indifferent because, before applying the punishment, we must first prepare the community to see whether they accept this punishment,” he said.
Last year, the governor of Aceh had promised to put an end to the region’s public canings, spectacles that often attract hundreds of jeering spectators (including tourists, often from Malaysia) as well as the criticism of the international press and human rights activists. He proposed moving the corporal punishment to private locations, but was ultimately overruled by others.
Contradicting the assertion that the application of brutal sharia punishments would somehow cause crime to disappear, Saudi Arabia executed over 100 people last year through either hanging or beheading. The Middle Eastern country is one of the top executioners in the world, with more than 2,000 people executed between 1985 and 2016 according to Amnesty International.
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