KOTA KINABALU, June 12 — Four foreign tourists were today sentenced to three days’ jail and fined RM5,000 each after pleading guilty to stripping naked on Mount Kinabalu here.
The four are Canadians siblings Lindsey Petersen, 23 and Daniella Peterson, 22, Dutch national Dylan Thomas Snel, 23, and Briton Eleanor Grace Hawkins, 24.
The four were earlier charged under Section 294(a) of the Penal code for public indecency, an offence which is punishable by a maximum three months’ jail term or fine or both.
But the quartet will go free today as Sessions Court judge Dean Wayne Daly ordered for the sentence to commence from their date of arrest on June 9.
They were part of a group of 10 tourists who, on May 30, took photographs in the nude atop the mountain considered sacred by natives.
The other six are believed to have left the country.
Daly, in reading out the sentence, said he took into account the remorse of the tourists who said they were willing to extend a public apology as well as the fact that three of them, the Petersons and Snel, had surrendered on June 9.
“Even though Hawkins was arrested at an airport, there was nothing to show she was absconding the law,” said Daly.
He said that the nation had been caught by surprise when photos of the incident surfaced on social media and the ensuing outrage.
He noted that the incident had also annoyed and offended the native people who saw the mountain as sacred.
Although acknowledging the sentence would not to deter would-be offenders, Daly said he refrained from imposing the maximum sentence after their counsel said they were ignorant of local laws and customs and had been “sufficiently traumatised” by the event and media attention.
Hawkins’ lawyer, Ronny Cham, said that the punishment befit the crime and declared it “a happy ending to the whole episode”.
The four, who were dressed in casual attire when appearing in court, appeared relieved and happy when the sentenced was announced.
They left the Kota Kinabalu court building at 7.50pm, after Cham paid the fines.
The four tourists had faced a throng of local and international reporters upon arrival at the court building here and left in similar fashion, minus handcuffs.
The women, Daniella and Hawkins, shielded their faces with their hair and arms while Lindsey and Snel looked ahead while they were escorted through the jostling cameramen.
It is unclear when the four will be deported.
