Four foreign hikers who posed
naked on Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia were freed Friday after they were fined and
sentenced to time served.
The backpackers -- from
Britain, Canada and the Netherlands -- were arrested after stripping naked May
30 and posing for photos on the mountaintop, the nation's Bernama news agency
reported. The mountain is considered sacred in Malaysia.
They had pleaded guilty to
"committing an obscene act."
The identity of the two
Canadians is Lindsey and Danielle Peterson. The Briton is named Eleanor
Hawkins. The name of the Dutchman has not yet been confirmed by CNN.
The court in Kota Kinabalu on
Friday evening fined the four 5,000 Malaysian ringgits, about $1,332, each and
sentenced them to three days in prison. Taking into account the time served
already, the court ordered them freed.
Local residents had said their
behavior caused the Kota Kinabalu earthquake this month, which killed 16
people. The indigenous people of Sabah believe the tourists disrespected local
culture and angered the spirit of the mountain, Bernama reported.
Among those who appeared in
court was a British citizen who was arrested at the airport this week as she
was about to leave for the capital of Kuala Lumpur.
The other three turned
themselves in. They could have faced three months in prison.
It is not the first time
tourists have made headlines for stripping off their clothes at major
attractions.
Cambodia deported two U.S.
tourists for allegedly taking nude pictures at Angkor Archaeological Park after
a string of nudity-related incidents hit the
religious sites this year.
At least eight tourists were detained last year in
separate incidents for getting naked and posing for photos in Machu Picchu, the
15th-century attraction in Peru.
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