Nearer draws the time
More, from the Star in Malaysia on 19 August, on a case previously reported:
KUANTAN: The part-time model from Singapore, who is to be caned for having a beer in a nightclub last year, is one step closer to receiving her punishment.
The Syariah High Court has ordered for Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, to be detained for seven days effective Aug 24 in preparation for being whipped six times.
The order was obtained following an application by Syarie deputy public prosecutor Saiful Idham Sahimi, who filed it at the court here yesterday. The court also granted the prosecution’s application for Kartika’s caning to be carried out within the seven days of her detention at the women’s prison in Kajang, that it be carried out by a female officer and for her to be released as soon as the punishment was meted out.
The application was heard before Syariah High Court Judge Justice Datuk Abdul Rahman Yunos in chambers.
A debate is now raging as to how the punishment will be carried out. According to the Malaysian Insider:
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 20 — A Muslim woman who has been sentenced to six strokes of the rotan for drinking beer has asked for the punishment to be carried out in public, not in a prison in Selangor. Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, who is set to be caned next week, said she should be punished in public if the Islamic court had intended for it to be a lesson to all Muslims.
But religious experts, including the Malaysian Syariah Lawyers Association and the Islamic adviser to the Prime Minister, said public flogging is unnecessary, as long as the offender has learnt her lesson.
“I think the punishment is fair, but it should be done in public for everyone to see so that people will learn. Let’s be transparent,” Kartika, 32, told The Straits Times in a phone interview yesterday.
The Pahang Syariah High Court yesterday issued a warrant for the mother of two to be remanded in Kajang prison from next Monday. She is to be caned within seven days of the remand at the Selangor prison. This means the punishment will be carried out during the fasting month, which starts on Saturday. The punishment will make her the first woman in Malaysia to be caned…
Kartika will not be caned in public as the punishment must be held within the law, explained Pahang state syariah deputy public prosecutor Saiful Idham Sahimi. “The caning cannot be done according to their liking. The government must first gazette a public place if a punishment is to be carried out there,” he said. “At the moment, Kajang prison is the most suitable place, and the Prison Department will mete out the punishment”..
Datuk Abdullah Mohd Zain, the religious adviser to the Prime Minister, argued that the sentence is mild compared with the 40 strokes of the rotan during the Prophet’s time. “We are just trying to teach Muslims that drinking is bad. Why does it matter whether the caning is done in the open or behind closed doors?” he told The Straits Times
