JAG questions syariah court’s whipping sentence

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno

The Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) has criticised the stealth with which the Pahang religious authorities have reviewed the whipping sentence on part-time model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno.

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno is close to being the first woman caned in Malaysia under sharia law.

She 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 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. She even wanted the caning to be carried out in public. This led to an outcry, a number of Malaysian women’s organisations launched a campaign against the sentence, there was a Facebook fan group in her defence, and government ministers advised Kartika to appeal.

On 24 August 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.

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Some observers believed that the Malaysian authorities were trying to bury the affair. However, the Home Minister stated that he was satisfied that the Prison Department had the ability to carry out the sentence.

On 28 September a Sharia appeal court upheld the sentence, there is now the serious possibility that it will be carried out, although a date has not yet been set