Model to be detained before being caned for drinking beer

(The Star) – A 32-year-old part-time model from Singapore who was to be whipped with six strokes of the rotan after admitted to having a beer in a nightclub last year was ordered by the Syariah High Court to be detained for seven days effective Aug 24.

The order was obtained following an application by Syarie deputy public prosecutor Saiful Idham Sahimi who filed it at the court here Tuesday.

The application was heard before Syariah High Court Judge Justice Datuk Abdul Rahman Yunos, in chambers.

On July 20, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno was ordered to be caned and fined RM5,000 for consuming alcohol at a hotel night club in Cherating.

She was arrested during a raid by a team from the state religious department at 1.20am on July 12, 2007.

Kartika paid the fine. However, she did not make an appeal against the whipping order.

The Syariah High Court court also granted the prosecution's two other applications – for the caning to be carried out within the seven days Kartika was ordered to be detained at the women's prison in Kajang and for it to be conducted by a woman officer, and for Kartika to be released as soon as the punishment was meted out.

The punishment is provided under Section 125(4) of the Syariah Criminal Procedure Enactment 2002 that spelled out how the caning should be carried out.

In Islamic law, the cane should not be thicker than the little finger on the hand and that the cane cannot be lifted so high that the upper arm is lifted away from the armpit.

The part-time model was charged under Section 136 of the Pahang Islamic and Malay Traditional Practices Enactment 1982 (amendment 1987).

Under the section, those who are found guilty can be fined up to RM5,000 or jailed a maximum of three years, or both, and sentenced to six strokes of the rotan.

The sentence for consuming alcohol was made stiffer when the Islamic Religious Administration and Pahang Malay Tradition Enactment 1982 was amended in 1987.