New laws have been passed in Aceh which make adultery punishable by stoning to death.

New laws have been passed in Aceh, a strict Islamic province of Indonesia, which make adultery punishable by stoning to death.

In as little as 30 days time, married people in Aceh convicted of adultery could be sentenced to death by stoning, while those who are unmarried could be sentenced to 100 lashes with a cane.

Homosexuality, rape, alcohol consumption and gambling will also carry strict punishment under the new legislation created under sharia, or Islamic, law.

Initiated by the regional parliament, there was a unanimous vote from its House of Representatives to adopt the bill, despite objections from the Deputy Governor of Aceh, Muhammed Nazar, a former rebel of the Free Aceh Movement, who called for further debate over the legislation.

Nazar said his office opposed the clause on stoning to death but had no legal power to block it, “Whatever law is passed we have to enforce it,” he said.

Some members of the moderate Democrat party had also voiced reservations, and many human rights groups have also expressed great concern at the introduction of capital punishment.

Sharia law was partially introduced in Aceh in 2001, as part of a government offer to pacify separatist rebels. A peace deal in 2005 ended the 30-year separatist insurgency, and many of the former rebels have now entered Aceh’s government, which is semiautonomous from the central government of the Republic of Indonesia.

The version of sharia law already in place in Aceh bans gambling and drinking alcohol and makes it compulsory for women to wear headscarves.

The majority of Indonesia’s Muslims practise a moderate form of the faith, and surveys suggest they do not support such hardline interpretations of the Qur’an.