A disturbing video went viral in Indonesia over the weekend, showing several men forcing a couple to strip naked before parading them on the street as punishment for getting intimate.
The video was taken on Saturday evening in Kadu Village, Tangerang Regency. The couple, presumably unwed, were reportedly caught by locals performing an unspecified “immoral act” inside a rented home in the village, which sparked the humiliating and horrifying act of vigilantism.
The visibly distressed couple were forced outside into the street by the unidentified locals, who berated them for being indecent. While the woman had a t-shirt on at the beginning of the video, the men soon forcefully stripped her completely naked despite her ear-piercing screams for mercy. The couple were also beaten on several occasions.
After the video went viral, the Tangerang Regency Police said they are carrying out an investigation into identifying the men who assaulted the couple.
“The Crime Investigation Unit is questioning the victims about the chronology of events,” said Tangerang Regency Police Chief Sabilul Alif, as quoted by Detik today.
Sabilul added that, on top of the humiliation, the couple also sustained several injuries that night. He pledged to charge the perpetrators for physical abuse and battery when they are identified and arrested.
Parades of shame for adulterers or anyone found getting intimate outside of wedlock are sadly common in Indonesia, especially in rural areas, and the abusers often escape any criminal charges. In August, a couple who had allegedly committed adulter were paraded through the streets of a village in East Java, only for the police to charge the man for adultery but not the neighborhood busybodies who abused the couple.
A similar raid on consenting adulterers also occurred in Tangerang in January. The people who forcefully paraded the couple were also not charged with any crime.
