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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caning_in_Malaysia
Caning in Malaysia
![[Muslim+model+Kartika+Sari+Dewi+Shukarno+will+be+caned+for+drinking+beer.jpg]](bit-Caning_files/image006.jpg)
Kartika
case
There is also great controversy
surrounding the caning sentence for Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno.[17]
Kartika's sentence still has not been carried out because of doubt as to how it
should be implemented. While some say Kartika's sentence does not conform to
Islamic law, Mohamad Sahfri, chairman of the Pahang Religious Affairs Committee,
says that all relevant regulations have been observed.[18]
Prime Minister Najib has called on Kartika to appeal her sentence while
emphasizing that the federal government has no power to intervene under
Malaysia's constitution.[19]
Kartika is a Muslim of Malaysian
origin now resident in Singapore, who has worked as a hospital nurse and a
part-time model. In 2007 she was arrested for drinking beer in a hotel bar, and
in 2009 she was sentenced by a religious court to six strokes of the cane and a
fine. Kartika indicated that she accepted her sentence, as she now respects the
law.[20]
She even asked that the caning be carried out in public. Several Malaysian
women's organisations have launched a campaign against the sentence,[21]
there was a Facebook
fan group in her defence, and government ministers advised Kartika to appeal.[22]
On 24 August 2009 she was picked up in a
van to be taken to prison for the sentence to be carried out, but around an
hour later she was returned, and told that the sentence would not be carried
out until after Ramadan.[23][24]
On 28 September 2009 a Sharia appeal court upheld the sentence, although a date
has not yet been set.[25][26]
As of February 2010,
the sentence had not been carried out.[8]
Kartika had an audience with Tengku
Mahkota Pahang Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah in Istana Abu Bakar, Pekan, on
3 March 2010.[27]
Kartika shared her plight with Tengku Abdullah after the caning was postponed
several times even though she had no objection to being caned.[28]
The Tengku said that, under the Pahang Syariah Criminal Procedure Code
Enactment 2002, the sultan as the head of religion had the prerogative to make
a decision regarding a convicted person, even if that person did not appeal
against a sentence, whereby he may have Kartika's caning sentence reduced or
even pardon her altogether.[29][30]
Sharia caning
Malaysia also has a separate system of sharia courts for Muslims,
which can order canings. This kind of caning is quite different from, and much
less severe than, judicial caning under Malaysian criminal law. It is intended
to be shaming rather than particularly painful. The cane used is smaller and
the recipient keeps his or her clothes on. It is administered with a "limp
wrist" and without raising the arm.[6]
Caning
of three women in February 2010
On 9 February 2010 three Muslim women
were caned by order of a Sharia court for having sex outside marriage, the
first time women have ever been caned in Malaysia.[7][8][9]
Government minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil has said that she
respected Syariah caning for illicit sex but pointed out that Islamic law also
prescribes rehabilitation and counselling. She acknowledged that Syariah judges
have the discretion to impose caning, but described the caning of women as a
sensitive issue.[10]
The Malaysian Chinese Association, a
member party in the governing coalition, accepts that while syariah laws are
personal laws and syariah jurisdiction applies to Muslims only, its application
should in no event contravene the Federal Constitution.[11]
Ivy Josiah of the Women's Aid Organisation said that, rather
than concentrating on moral policing of Muslim individuals, the religious
authorities should focus on education and counselling.[12]
The opposition Pakatan
Rakyat has criticised the caning, accusing the Syariah Court of
disrespecting Syariah laws. PR leader and PAS president Abdul
Hadi Awang said that what was important was how the due process of law had
taken place and the manner in which the perpetrators had admitted to the
offence. "Was it voluntary or not? How were they caught in the act? Was it
because of their own doing (that the offence took place)? There are many
aspects. It is not just a spontaneous thing (to mete out caning as a
punishment)".[13]
The advocacy group Sisters in Islam and the Malaysian
Bar Council have both said that the canings violate Federal civil laws that
prohibit the punishment against females.[14][15]
Political commentators have said that the caning of the three women, a spate of
firebombings at places of worship, and a row over the use of the word
"Allah" by non-Muslims have shaken Malaysia's reputation as a
moderate Muslim-majority nation.[16]
'We
deserved our punishment': What three Muslim Malaysian women said after being
caned for having sex outside marriage
Three Muslim women
who were the first in Malaysia to be caned for having sex outside marraige this
morning claimed the punishment was an opportunity for them to repent.
Prison authorities
caned the women last week after an Islamic Shariah court issued the penalty.
The caning has
outraged rights groups and revived speculation that conservative Islamists, who
advocate harsh punishment, are gaining influence in the country.
The three women, aged
17-25, said they turned themselves in after feeling guilty for sleeping with
their boyfriends before marriage and getting pregnant.
Malaysian
justice: Prison staff demonstrate to the media how the caning process was done
at the Kajang prison outside Kuala Lumpur
The 17-year-old told reporters that she surrendered to
Islamic authorities after her prematurely born child died.
She is now serving a six-month prison sentence.
'I know I have sinned, and I have to be
punished. Strangely however, I felt that the caning was not a form of
punishment but was an opportunity for me to repent and return to the right
path,' she said.
She has already married her boyfriend, who has also been
caned and jailed over the offence.
The other women, who have one young child each, are
planning to marry their partners after they are released.
The men were also caned for having sex.
One woman, aged 25,
said she was scared before the caning but knew
she deserved the punishment.
All three women called on others not to make the same
mistake and abstain from sex before marriage.
Journalists interview three women who
were caned for having sex out of wedlock, at a prison in Kajang . They are
first to be caned under the country's Islamic laws
A Prison Department
official confirmed the women's comments, made at a news conference at the
women's prison outside Kuala Lumpur to local, government-linked media under the
watch of authorities.
He said they were
reluctant to speak to other media.
It could not be
confirmed whether they were speaking voluntarily.
A request with the
department for interviews is pending.
Deputy Prime Minister
Muhyiddin Yassin defended the caning this morning, saying it was 'far lighter'
than what some people might imagine.
'The punishment is
legitimate and in accordance with the law,' Muhyiddin said.
Human rights groups
have slammed the caning, saying it is a cruel and degrading punishment and
discriminates against Muslim women because Malaysian civil law - which applies
to non-Muslims - bans the caning of women.
The women, who were
fully clothed and sitting on a stool, received between four and six strokes
with a thin rattan stick on the back, lasting a few minutes.
Another woman,
Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, is still waiting to be caned for drinking beer in
public.
Her case received
international attention last year when she became the first woman slated to
receive a caning penalty.
But the punishment
was deferred indefinitely amid a public outcry.
Caning of men for
such offenses as rape, drug smuggling and staying illegally in the country is
common.
It is administered
with a thick rattan stick on bare buttocks, causing severe pain and leaving
scars.
Malaysia has a
two-tier justice system.
Shariah courts deal
with personal matters for Muslims, who account for about two-thirds of the
country's 28 million people, while non-Muslims - many of whom are ethnic
Chinese and Indians - go to civil courts.
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