Model to be flogged
An Islamic court in Malaysia has sentenced a Muslim woman to be flogged with a rattan cane for having a beer in a nightclub, a court official said Tuesday. It is rare for a woman in Malaysia to be sentenced to caning – a punishment usually reserved for men in various crimes ranging from rape to bribery. It is generally done by specially trained officials at prisons.
Part-time model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno was sentenced Monday to six lashes and a fine of 5,000 ringgit ($1,400) for consuming alcohol, said a Shariah High Court official who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to make public statements.
Shukarno, 32, pleaded guilty in the court in eastern Pahang state to a charge of drinking beer when Islamic authorities raided a hotel nightclub in August 2008.
Consuming alcohol is a religious offense in Malaysia only for Muslims, who make up nearly two-thirds of the population. Offenders are prosecuted in Shariah courts, which handle cases mainly related to family and moral issues for Muslims.
Shukarno plans to appeal the sentence, the New Straits Times daily reported.
The punishment “is aimed at making the accused repent and serves as a lesson to Muslims,” the newspaper quoted Judge Abdul Rahman Yunus as saying.
A little digging in the archives reveals that Shukarno’s case was held over from earlier in the year, when a 22 year old woman was also sentenced to a caning. Back on 14 January, the Straits Times reported that:
A RELIGIOUS court has sentenced a Muslim woman to six strokes of the cane for drinking alcohol, possibly for the first time in Malaysia. The Syariah High Court in Pahang also handed the same sentence to a man on Monday, and is due to make a decision on another woman in May.
Mohamad Nasir Mohamad, 38, a father of four, and waitress Noorazah Baharuddin, 22, were found drinking beer separately in pubs in July last year in central Pahang state, said reports released yesterday…
The third accused was part-time model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32. According to the New Straits Times, Kartika, a Singapore permanent resident, could not attend court as she is studying in Singapore.
Judge Abdul Rahman Yunus said that he had given the maximum fine and caning as a deterrent to other Muslims, but had spared them a jail sentence.
‘The caning is to shame them and should be done at any of the prisons in the country,’ he was quoted as saying by NST.
Baharuddin was pictured leaving court on that occasion:
