Tourists taking nude photos at sacred mountain in Malaysia are punished

(Baonghean.vn) - Four Western tourists who took nude photos at Malaysia's highest peak and were blamed for a deadly earthquake six days later were sentenced to three days in jail and fined on Friday, June 12, after pleading guilty to obscenity. They will also be deported.

British national Eleanor Hawkins (front) along with three other tourists from Canada and the Netherlands are escorted by police as they leave a court in Kota Kinabalu, the eastern state of Sabah in Malaysia on June 10.

The four, two from Canada, one from Britain and one from the Netherlands, angered Malaysians who believed their actions angered the god of Mount Kinabalu and caused the earthquake that killed 18 people last Friday.

They were given the choice of a 5,000 ringgit ($1,330) fine or three months in jail if they failed to pay, state news agency Bernama said. They served three days in jail after being detained by police since Wednesday, June 10.

Eighteen climbers were killed when a magnitude 6 earthquake struck areas around Mount Kinabalu.

District Court Judge Dean Wayne Daly accepted the guilty plea as a mitigating factor but said their actions had shocked the nation and caused public outrage, Bernama said.

Many locals and foreign tourists still trek to Sabah, located in the north of Borneo, to climb the 4,095-metre (13,435 ft) Mount Kinabalu, one of the highest peaks in Southeast Asia.

Phuong Thao

(According to Reuters)