PETALING JAYA, Sept 19 — Muslim women’s rights group Sisters in Islam (SIS) has asked the Syariah court in Kuantan to delay Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno’s caning sentence for drinking beer until all legal avenues are exhausted.
SIS filed for the revision yesterday, saying it was acting in the public interest so as to resolve the controversies and to provide clarity for what would be the first-ever caning of a woman for any offence in Malaysia.
"SIS filed for a revision at the Syariah High Court in Kuantan on Friday morning asking for a stay of execution of Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno’s sentence of whipping," its executive director Dr Hamidah Marican said in a statement.
"SIS urges the authorities to refrain from executing the sentence on Kartika until all legal and other avenues have been exhausted," she added.
Mother-of-two Kartika (picture) was due to be caned six times in the first week of the Ramadan fasting month in late August but it was called off at the last minute after a public and international outcry apart from the Prisons Department's inability to carry out Islamic-style caning. Malaysia's civil laws also prevent women from being punished with caning but the Syariah court insists that the sentence be carried out.
The former nurse turned model was fined RM5,000 and six strokes after she was caught drinking beer in Cherating, Pahang with her Singaporean husband, who as a foreigner was not charged. Only Pahang, Perlis and Kelantan prescribe caning for the alcohol-drinking offence.
Both Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Women and Family Affairs Minister Senator Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil have asked the 32-year-old Kartika to appeal against the sentence but she has refused, and turned around asking for public caning.
The government has asked the Syariah court to examine the case but the Pahang religious authorities have now pushed the caning to after the Hari Raya Aidil Fitri celebrations next week.
SIS said it understands from some newspaper reports that the Chief Syarie Judge of Pahang has also filed for a revision of Kartika’s sentence.
"But we have not been able to verify this officially. Should this process be in place, we are surprised by the statement issued by the Pahang Religious Department today of its intent to execute the sentence on Kartika, and to do so without any prior notice," Hamidah said.
"Since Kartika’s case has generated much public concern, nationally and internationally, the insistence on executing the sentence when legal avenues for revision and clarification have not been exhausted shows an utter disregard of a matter of great public and international interest," she added.
SIS's action also came after the Syariah court in Selangor on Wednesday sentenced a couple to six strokes of the cane after they pleaded guilty to trying to have sex out of wedlock in their car.
Syariah prosecutor Shafezan Rusli said religious police caught Mohamad Shahrin Abdul Majid, 29, and Nadiah Najat Hussin, 24, with only their undergarments on in a car at an office parking lot last May.
He said the couple are appealing the caning as they plan to get married soon, though they have paid the court-ordered fine of RM5,000 each.
Earlier this week, the Syariah court judge who had sentenced Kartika also ordered an Indonesian Muslim man to be caned six times and jailed a year for drinking liquor at a restaurant.
It is not known if the Indonesian was a visitor or a permanent resident to enable him to be subject to Malaysian Syariah laws.
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