A part-time Muslim model, sentenced to six strokes of cane for consuming alcohol, will become the first woman in Malaysia to be administered the punishment next week.
An arrest warrant has been issued by a Shariah court against Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, who was caught drinking alcohol during a raid at a hotel. Kartika, who pleaded guilty to consuming beer in public, will be held for a week from Monday in a women's prison and will be released after the punishment has been served, the Shariah High Court in eastern Pahang state said.
The prison's director will carry out the whipping and release Kartika after the punishment has been served, the judge said. Kartika, who was also fined for the act prohibited in Islam, will be the first woman in the country to receive the punishment.
"This is the first case in Malaysia... It is a good punishment because under Islamic law a person who drinks commits a serious offense," prosecutor Saiful Idham Sahimi said.
Kartika pleaded guilty to consuming beer in public when she made her first court appearance in December last year. She was fined 5,000 ringgit (approximately Rs 65,000) and sentenced to be caned with a rattan, which is lighter compared to the whip, under civil law.
Kartika settled the fine and refused to make an appeal. A mother of two, Kartika became a permanent resident of Singapore after marrying a Singaporean. The sentence for consuming alcohol was made stiffer when the Islamic Religious Administration and Pahang Malay Tradition Enactment was amended in 1987. Malaysian hotels and night clubs, which serve liquor, are not legally required to check whether customers are Muslims.
Muslims, who comprise two-thirds of the population in Malysia, are governed by Islamic courts while non-Muslims are governed by civil courts.
