Caning of model yet to be carried out

2009/11/14

THE caning sentence imposed on part-time model Sari Kartika Dewi Shukarno, 32, has yet to be carried out due to doubt (syubahah) in the implementation. Pahang Religious Affairs chairman Datuk Mohd Sahfri Abdul Aziz said the department must exercise caution when executing such punishment, especially on women offenders.

"This is the first such case since we gained independence in 1957 and we do not have a female personnel to do the caning," he said replying to a supplementary question from Syed Mohammed Tuan Lonnik (Pas-Beserah) on the delay in carrying out the sentence.

Sahfri said a similar punishment had been carried out for the same offence on an Indonesian man who pleaded guilty at the syariah court here for consuming alcohol in public.

He said the man received six strokes at the Penor Prison here on Thursday.

To an earlier written question by Mohammed that the caning sentence did not follow the Islamic law, Sahfri said it complied with the regulations approved by the state assembly and jurisdiction allocated by the Federal Constitution through the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) 1965.

Sahfri said although Islamic laws fixed between 40 and 80 strokes of the cane for alcohol consumption which is recognised as a hudud offence, the syariah court had no right to impose the hudud sentence.

On July 20, Kartika was fined RM5,000 and ordered to be given six strokes of the rotan by the Kuantan Syariah High Court after she pleaded guilty to drinking beer in a hotel lobby in Cherating in July last year.