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Women Living Under Muslim Laws -
WLUML
Website Link includes suggestive
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Malaysia
- Urgent Appeal for Intervention
to
Stay Sentence of Woman's Caning
BACKGROUND
Kartika Sari
Dewi Shukarno was sentenced to six lashes and a fine of 5,000 ringgit ($1,400)
for consuming alcohol. Shukarno, a 32-year-old model, pleaded guilty in the
court in eastern Pahang state to a charge of drinking beer when Islamic
authorities raided a hotel nightclub. Consuming alcohol is a religious offense
in Malaysia only for Muslims, who make up nearly two-thirds of the population.
Offenders are prosecuted in Shariah courts, which handle cases mainly related
to family and moral issues for Muslims. Most offenders are fined, but the law
also provides for a three-year prison term and caning. Shukarno was the only
Muslim caught in the raid at the Pahang nightclub. Malaysian clubs and lounges
typically serve alcohol but are not legally required to check if customers are
Muslim before serving them, so the hotel nightclub operators were not charged
with any offense.
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21/08/2009: The Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) international solidarity
network is deeply concerned to learn that Madam Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32,
is to be detained for seven days effective 24 August 2009. The Syariah High
Court has issued a warrant of arrest ordered for women's prison in Kajang,
before receiving six strokes of the rotan.
Reports
indicate this would make her one of the first woman to be caned in this way in
Malaysia.
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.
On July 20, Kartika had been ordered to be caned and fined RM5,000 for consuming alcohol at a hotel night club in Cherating.
She was arrested by a team from the state religious department at 1.20am on July 12, 2007.
Although Kartika paid the fine, she did not appeal against the whipping order.
The mother of two was charged under Section 136 of the Pahang Islamic and Malay Traditional Practices Enactment (Amendment) 1987.
Under this section, those found guilty of consuming alcohol can be fined up to RM5,000 or jailed for 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 was amended in 1987.
The punishment is provided for under Section 125(4) of the Syariah Criminal Procedure Enactment 2002, which 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 the cane cannot be lifted so high that the upper arm is away from the armpit.
19 August 2009
Source: The Star
For more background information: http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-565013 - Click website link for Full Article.
MALAYSIA: WOMAN TO BE CANED FOR DRINKING ALCOHOL
27/07/2009: "An Islamic court in Malaysia has sentenced a Muslim woman to be flogged with a rattan cane for having a beer in a nightclub, a court official said Tuesday. (New Straits Times / AP) .....
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