Three days in jail for Dutch backpacker who showed disrespect towards mountain

DutchNews.nl, June 12, 2015

Dutch backpacker Dylan Snel has been sentenced to three days in jail and a fine of around €1,200 for stripping naked on a Malaysian holy mountain. A Canadian brother and sister and an English girl received the same sentence, Dutch media say on Friday afternoon. 

Snel’s mother told Dutch reporters she was delighted at the news and that the sentence could have been worse. ‘We’ve already been checking out the tickets and perhaps he can leave as early as tomorrow morning,’ she said. 

The four had been held in custody since Tuesday and are expected to be released immediately. 

They were part of a group of Western backpackers arrested after photos emerged of them stripping naked on Mount Kinabalu 

A strong earthquake hit the mountain last Friday, killing 18 people. 

Six days later, Sabah state deputy chief minister, Joseph Pairin Kitingan, blamed the earthquake on travellers showing ‘disrespect to the sacred mountain’. A special ritual will now be conducted to ‘appease the mountain spirit’, the Daily Mail reports.

Dutchman Dylan Snel, Briton Eleanor Hawkins (maroon top) and 

Canadian Danielle Petersen (black top) are escorted from court in 

Kota Kinabalu on Friday. Photograph: Mohd Asraffirdauz Bin Abdullah/AP

Related Articles:

Woman who stripped on Malaysian mountain 'glad to be going back to UK'
British woman who posed naked on Malaysian mountain on her way home

Malaysia detains Western tourists over nude pix on quake-hit peak

Kathmandu's 'living goddess' survives quake

Japan prepares to mark three years since devastating quake

As world honours the dead, Indonesia begins tsunami memorials