A British woman has been arrested in Malaysia for allegedly posing naked on top of a sacred mountain and upsetting mountain gods, causing a 5.9 magnitude earthquake on the mountain last Friday June 5 which killed 18 people. Eleanor Hawkins is being held with four other Westerners while they are investigated for indecent behaviour. The five face possible prison sentences. How do you blame an earthquake on someone's nakedness? Some things you hear eh...
They are believed to be part of a group of 10 people who stripped naked before taking photos at the peak of Mount Kinabalu on May 30 – an act which a senior minister in Malaysia has blamed for causing an earthquake that killed 18 climbers last week.
Miss Hawkins, a 23-year-old Southampton University graduate from Derby, was detained on Tuesday at Tawau airport as she was flying from the island of Borneo to the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Her father, Timothy Hawkins said last night: ‘We spoke to her this morning. She’s okay, she’s very scared, she’s very upset. She’s been arrested. It’s not a situation she’s been in before so it’s not good. ‘We’ve talked to the consulate and arranged a lawyer.’
Mr Hawkins, who runs a mechanical engineering business, said his daughter is ‘obviously in the photos’ but he did not want the situation to be ‘blown out of all proportion’. ‘It’s fair enough to charge for the misdemeanour committed,’ he said. ‘What we don’t want is her lumbered with further charges.’
After a 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit the 13,400ft-high mountain on Friday, Sabah deputy chief minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan blamed the tragedy on the tourists for showing ‘disrespect to the sacred mountain’ by posing naked at the peak.
He has said a special ritual will be conducted to ‘appease the mountain spirit’ after 18 people were killed in the disaster.
