by P Prem Kumar
KUALA LUMPUR
Four foreigners arrested on suspicion of stripping on the Malaysian "sacred" peak of Mount Kinabalu were each sentenced to three days’ jail Friday and fined RM5,000 ($1331) after being found guilty of public indecency.
Canadians Lindsey Petersen, 23, and Danielle Peterson, 22, Dutch national Dylan Snel, 23, and British national Eleanor Hawkins, 24, had earlier pleaded guilty in the Sabah court house to a charge of obscene behaviour in a public place.
Having been arrested Tuesday under Section 294(a) of the Penal code for public indecency, the tourists will go free later Friday as they have served their sentence retroactively, reported the Malay Mail.
They were among a group of ten men and women who took photographs of themselves topless and in the nude atop Kinabalu - which is considered sacred by natives as they see it as carrying the spirit of their ancestors.
The Indigenous Kadazan Dusun believe that the act triggered a 5.9 magnitude tremor that occurred six days later, striking near the mountain -- at 4,095 metres, Southeast Asia’s highest peak -- killing the 18 climbers.
The area's deputy chief minister, Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, has blamed the June 5 quake on the tourists' "sacrilegious act," and called for them to be brought to the court and charged.
“Whether other people believe this or not, it’s what we Sabahans believe. When the earthquake happened, it’s like a confirmation of our beliefs," he said in a press conference to announce the quake death toll.
The group's lawyer, Ronnie Chiam, told the court Friday that the four were ignorant of local people's cultures and beliefs and had no idea that the mountain was sacred.
"As a gesture of regret and remorse they are willing to extend a public apology to the people of Sabah and Malaysia," The Star Online reported him as saying.
Most of those who died were climbers from a Singapore primary school, who were hit by an avalanche of boulders.
