The police raided Remita Sinaga's house in early 2016 where they found 70 bottles of alcohol. Subsequently, the prosecutor indicted her for selling alcohol to her neighbors, a criminal act punishable with up to 30 public lashes under the Acehnese Qanun Jinayat. The prosecutor demanded for her to be punished in the form of 6 lashes in public but the court decided to punish her with 30 lashes. Sinaga became the first non-Muslim who was prosecuted and punished under the Acehnese Islamic criminal law.