Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - A Malaysian model will receive six strokes from a rattan cane after admitting in an Islamic court to the crime of drinking beer in a bar.
Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno’s sentence was confirmed by her lawyer yesterday after she decided not to appeal, making her the first woman to face corporal punishment imposed by a Malaysian Sharia court.
The case has caused controversy in a country that projects an image of moderation to foreign tourists and businesses but imposes stern Islamic justice on its Muslim population.
Alcohol is served to members of other religions at the country’s tourist bars and hotels but for Muslims — who make up two thirds of the population — its consumption is punishable by a fine, up to three years in prison or six strokes of the cane.
Ms Kartika, 32, who lives with her husband and two children in Singapore and works as a part-time model, was caught in a police raid on a bar in Cherating in July last year. She said that she accepted the court’s ruling, which included a fine of 5,000 ringgit (£860). “I am not afraid because I was ready to be punished from Day 1,” she said.
The case has outraged some Malaysian women. “Did she harm anyone with her drinking?” asked a writer named Mariam Mokhtar in a letter to the New Straits Times newspaper. “Her crime is between her and her God. Let her receive her punishment when she eventually meets her Maker ... The worse crime is that we, and our society, allow and condone such terrible things to continue under the guise of ‘protecting the religion’.”
Ragunath Kesavan, the president of the Malaysian Bar Council, said: “This would be the first time caning has been meted out by the Islamic courts. We are all shocked and strongly oppose caning male or women offenders.”
Malaysian courts also impose caning for crimes including rape and corruption, and the punishment, administered to the bare buttocks with a cane as thick as a thumb, often leaves permanent scars. Sharia caning, according to those who carry it out, is less violent, intended to embarrass rather than to hurt its victims.
“Sharia whipping is more like caning naughty schoolboys,” a “whipping officer” told the New Straits Times. “In Sharia the punishment is not in the force of the whipping but to bring shame. The whipping implement is supposed to be soft and supple, so as to inflict the least pain.”
The recipients of Sharia caning wear clothes and the blows are not supposed to break the skin. The cane of rattan, or jungle creepers, is as thick as a little finger, and according to Sharia rules the person administering the blows is not allowed to raise the hand so high that the upper arm moves away from the armpit.
“An imaginary book clutched under his armpit would not drop,” the newspaper reported.
Another customer and a waitress who were caught in the same raid as Ms Kartika were similarly sentenced but are appealing against the caning.
Ms Kartika’s father, Shukarno Mutalib, told Agence France-Presse that her family accepted the verdict.
“We are not feeling sad. We are Muslims and I agree she has to be caned,” he said. “She has already pleaded guilty. We will follow the rules.”