Malaysian model to have royal audience before being caned
By IANSWednesday, February 17, 2010
KUALA LUMPUR - The sultan and the regent of Malaysia’s Pahang state will grant an audience to a part-time model who has expressed a wish to meet them before being caned for drinking in public.
Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno will undergo her caning sentence after her audience with them, the state’s Religious Department director Abdul Manan Abdul Rahman said.
Kartika made international headlines last year when she insisted on being caned as part of punishment for drinking alcohol in public.
Caning, or being thrashed by a rote, is a sentence usually reserved for men in Muslim-majority Malaysia where drinking in public for Muslims is an offence.
The official said Kartika had expressed the wish to meet the regent or the sultan and she could meet both.
The date of her punishment is yet to be decided.
After media uproar at home and human rights bodies’ appeals, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak had asked that the punishment be deferred.
Kartika, then 33, had refused to file an appeal.
On July 20 last year, Kartika was fined and ordered to be caned six times by the Kuantan Syariah High Court after she pleaded guilty to consuming alcohol in public.
