Four Westerners who stripped atop Malaysia’s highest peak pleaded guilty on Friday to public obscenity and were due to be deported, their lawyer said.
The four were fined about US$1,300 apiece and received three-day jail sentences, which they had already served, said the lawyer, Ronny Cham.
They were scheduled to take the first flight yesterday morning out of the city of Kota Kinabalu, he said.
They had faced possible jail terms of up to three months.
Their case received international attention after some local officials said that by removing their clothes on Mount Kinabalu, which is considered sacred by many who live near it, the foreigners had helped cause a deadly earthquake last week.
Eleanor Hawkins, 24, a Briton; Dylan Snel, 23, who is Dutch; and Lindsey Peterson, 23, and his sister Danielle Peterson, 22, of Canada, were part of a group who split off from a larger party of trekkers on the mountain last month. They removed their clothes and took photographs, despite requests from a guide that they not do so.
Their act provoked local anger after the guide reported the episode, but the outrage grew after a magnitude 6.0 earthquake on June 5 that killed 18 people on the mountain.
Online, many Malaysians denounced the behavior of the foreign visitors.
Some officials in Sabah, the Malaysian state on the island of Borneo where Kinabalu is, said they agreed with local sentiment that the earthquake was linked to the visitors’ display.
Six other members of the group were sought by the police, but were believed to have left the country.
Emil Kaminski, who is believed to be a member of the group that undressed, posted a video online in which he mocked the assertion that their actions had anything to do with the earthquake as foolishly unscientific.
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