Four of ten foreigners who posed naked on Malaysia’s mountain were sentenced Friday to three days in jail and fined for obscene behavior in a public place, according to Huffington Post. The westerners were alleged to have stripped naked and taken photos on Mount Kinabalu on May 30.
A local official further said their behavior was disrespectful to the mountain, which is believed to be sacred, and have angered the mountain spirits, causing a magnitude 6 earthquake last Friday, 5th June, that killed 18 climbers.
The Malaysian Native and Customary laws allowed the tribal chief to sit as a magistrate and adjudicate on matters relating to tribal, communal and religious affairs. The Sabah State Deputy Chief Minister, Datuk Pairin Kitingan had earlier said that the ’cause’ of the earthquake is due to the Westerners stripping naked at the mountain, angering the mountain spirits who vented their anger by unleashing the earthquake, according to MalayMail.Online. The Minister has called the police to apprehend the ‘culprits’ who caused the earthquake, killing 18 climbers – all of whom were from Asian countries.
Daily Mail Online reports that the Malaysian police have reportedly arrested Briton Elanor Hawkins, Canadian Lindsey Petersen, 22, and his sister, Danielle, 23, and a 23-year-old Dutch man, Dylan Snel, who surrendered themselves at a police station in Sabah yesterday evening. Another Canadian, named as Emil Kaminski, 33, who is understood to be the group’s tour guide, was arrested later.
The arrested Western nudists caused a great media frenzy in Malaysia and many bloggers took to social media to abuse the foreigners for disrespectful conduct while on the sacred mountain with some even calling them to be charged for ‘murder’. Mount Kinabalu is a popular tourist destination for mountain climbers and every year, thousands of tourist ascend the mountain to feel the snow capped peak in the tropical belt Borneo island in South East Asia.
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