Dozens of Malaysians charged with sexual misconduct in New Year's Day hotel raids, including a 54-year-old grandmother, will face court next month, officials said Tuesday.
Malaysia's Islamic morality police arrested 58 Muslim Malays for "khalwat" or "close proximity" under religious laws that bar Muslims from being alone with a member of the opposite sex before marriage.
"We will be charging them in a sharia court in February. If found guilty they face a fine and a six-month jail term," Ahmad Rafli Abdul Malek, head of the Pahang Islamic Department, told AFP.
Ahmad Rafli said the 54-year-old woman, a grandmother of eight, was caught with a 38-year-old man.
He related that when his officers knocked on their hotel door, they said: "How can we open the door. We are naked."
Malaysia has a dual-track legal system and Islamic courts can try Muslims -- who dominate the multicultural population -- for religious and moral offences.
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