By AL JAZEERA
Added: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 UTC

Thanks to LWS for the link.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/02/201021844619366612.html

Three women have been caned under Islamic law for committing adultery, a Malaysian minister has said.

This was the country's first ever case involving flogging of women.

Hishamuddin Tun Hussein, the Malaysian home affairs minister, said on Wednesday the sentences were carried out on February 9 after a sharia court found them guilty of extra-marital sex.

"It was carried out perfectly," Hishamuddin said in a statement. "Even though the caning did not injure them [the women], they said it caused pain within them."

Two of the women were whipped six times while the third received four strokes of the rotan (cane).

He said one woman was released from prison on Sunday, another will be freed in the next few days while the third will go free in June.

Controversy

The women, and four men, were caned following a decision in the religious courts in December, Hishamuddin said.

His comments are being seen as a signal that the authorities could be preparing to cane another Muslim woman, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, who was arrested last year for drinking beer and sentenced to six strokes of the cane.
...
Caning 'epidemic'

London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International on Wednesday urged Malaysia to end a caning "epidemic", saying the women's case was "just the tip of the iceberg".

Donna Guest, the group's deputy Asia-Pacific director, said in a statement that Malaysian authorities caned more than 35,000 mostly foreigners since 2002.
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http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/02/201021844619366612.html

TAGGED: LAW, MORALITY, RELIGION