KUALA LUMPUR - Forty-four Malaysian Muslim couples will appear in the country's Islamic court after religious officers found them getting too cuddly on Valentine's Day, local papers said on Friday.
The couples will be charged with 'close proximity' or 'khalwat', a crime for non-married couples under Malaysia's Islamic law, applied to Muslims in the multi-religious nation.
Malaysia's official religion is Islam and about 60 percent of its 23 million citizens are Muslims.
Religious officers, out in full strength late Wednesday and early Thursday, found couples in various compromising situations, including naked in a parked car and hiding in the ceiling of a hotel room, a Selangor state religious department officer, Mohamed Amin Husin, said.
Another officer said only those expressing the "wrong kind of love" were detained.
"We found many couples holding hands or sitting together in parks. We did not arrest them. We advised them to go home," he added.
One youth jumped from a first-floor hotel room wearing only his underwear, straight into the arms of raiding officers.
Those charged with 'khalwat' face up to two years in jail. Sixty other couples must attend counselling and the remaining lovers were freed after producing marriage certificates, said Amin Husin.
(Marty Logan, +60 3 2275 6831 fax +60 3 232-6752, marty.logan+reuters.com)
01:02 02-16-01
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