Woman wants public caning for drinking beer

SUNGAI SIPUT, Malaysia (Reuters) - A Malaysian Muslim woman who will be caned next week for drinking beer has defiantly asked that the punishment be carried out in public in a case that is fueling debate about tolerance in this multi-racial country.

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno will be the first Malaysian woman to be caned under Islamic laws applicable to Malaysia's Muslims, who account for 60 percent of the 27-million population.

She said the 20-month ordeal added to her distress, but she respected the law banning alcohol for Muslims and was determined to go through with the punishment -- six strokes of the cane.

The mother of two, who also paid a 5,000 ringgit ($1,420) fine, asked for the punishment, usually carried out in a closed prison, to be done in public.

"I never cried when I was sentenced by the judge. I told myself, alright then, let's get on with it," Kartika, 32, told Reuters in an interview at her father's house in a rural Malay village, about 300 km (186 miles) north of Kuala Lumpur.

Islam is the official religion in this country that has a dual-track legal system, with Islamic criminal and family laws applicable to Muslims alongside civil legislation.

Opinions are divided about the punishment Kartika faces under Islamic laws some say are too severe and selectively enforced.

Amnesty International criticized on Friday the punishment as "degrading" and said the caning comes at a time when the role of Islam in Malaysia is assuming greater importance.

One of the main opposition parties wants Malaysia, which has ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities who are not Muslim, to become an Islamic state with sharia laws on punishment.

SINGAPORE RESIDENT

Despite the prohibition, Muslims can be found consuming alcohol in bars and nightclubs openly in cities such as the capital, Kuala Lumpur, where attitudes are more relaxed.

Kartika, a Malaysian citizen married to a Singaporean, is a Singapore resident. Religious authorities caught her drinking at a hotel in Kuantan, the state capital of the central Malaysian state of Pahang, on December 11, 2007.

Kartika said she had three glasses of beer before the hotel was raided in what she said was her second time drinking alcohol. She and the other patrons were asked to provide urine samples.

Kartika, who said she has yet to receive any response to her request for a public caning, is due to be taken to prison in central Selangor state beginning on Monday for one week, during which her sentence will be carried out.

She will be fully clothed and kneeling and struck on the backside with a small thin cane using moderate force.

Four court appearances over the offence forced her to quit her full time hospital job and she has since had to rely on part-time modeling jobs.

"I only declared that I was a model to protect my full time job... I felt very humiliated because people used my status as a part-time model to publicize my case," she said.