Muslim model saved from caning

A MALAYSIAN Muslim model who faced a caning for drinking beer in a case that grabbed headlines around the world has had her sentence reduced to community service, her father said yesterday.

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 33, was sentenced last year under Islamic law to six lashes and a fine by a religious court in the moderate Muslim-majority country, triggering outrage among human rights groups.

Kartika’s father Shukarno Mutalib said, however, that the ruler of the central state of Pahang, where Kartika was caught drinking in a hotel bar, had decided to commute the sentence, according to a letter to the family this week.

“The sultan has decided that the caning sentence will be substituted with a three-week community service at a children’s home in Pahang from April 2,” Shukarno told AFP.

Alcohol is widely available in Malaysia but is forbidden for Muslim Malays, who make up 60% of the population.

They can be fined, caned, or jailed for up to three years, but prosecutions are extremely rare.

Kartika, a part-time model and mother-of-two, was to have been the first woman to be caned under Islamic law in Malaysia. However, in a surprise move, three other women were caned in February for having sex out of wedlock.