Female Islamic group seeks stay of Malaysian model's whipping sentence India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

A non-governmental group -- Sisters in Islam (SIS) -- has filed a petition before the Syariah High Court in Kuantan seeking a stay of the execution of a whipping sentence of part-time model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno. SIS executive director Dr Hamidah Marican said as an advocacy group working on women's rights in Islam, it was acting in the public interest so as to "resolve controversies and provide clarity on the issue." "We understand from some reports that Chief Syarie Judge of Pahang has also filed for a revision of Kartika's sentence. But we have not been able to verify this officially. Should this process be in place, we are surprised by the statement issued by the Pahang religious department of its intent to executve the sentence on Kartika and to do so without any prior notice," The Star quoted Marican, as saying in a statement here on Saturday. Dr Hamidah said the insistence on executing the sentence when all legal avenues for revision and clarification had not been exhausted showed an "utter disregard" of a matter of great public and international interest. Kartika, who was fined RM5,000 and ordered to be whipped six times for drinking beer in a hotel in Cherating, Pahang, has asked to be left alone on Wednesday. The 32-year-old mother of two, who has expressed her wish for the sentence to be carried out quickly, had complained of disturbances that too many people had met her and her family lately.