A British woman blamed for triggering an earthquake by posing naked on a sacred mountain is due to appear in court where she could be charged over allegations of indecent behaviour, her lawyer said.
Eleanor Hawkins, 23, is among a group of Western backpackers arrested after photos emerged of them allegedly stripping naked on Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia.
She is due to appear at Kota Kinabalu Magistrates’ Court.
Prosecution carries a possible three-month prison sentence or a fine.
A magnitude-5.9 earthquake struck the 13,400ft-high mountain last Friday, killing 18 people and leaving hundreds more stranded.
Sabah state deputy chief minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan blamed the earthquake six days later on travellers showing “disrespect to the sacred mountain”.
The group of 10 tourists stripped naked before taking photos at the peak of Kinabalu on May 30.
Miss Hawkins’s lawyer Ronny Cham said: “She may be charged today or have her bail extended. I don’t know.”
Yesterday her father said his daughter was sorry for any offence caused by her actions.
He said: “She knows what she did was stupid and disrespectful and is very sorry for the offence that she has caused the Malaysian people.”
He added: “We hope that the Malaysian authorities deal with the misdemeanour and not link it to the unfortunate tragic events that occurred the following week.”
Mr Hawkins criticised an arrested Canadian – named in reports as 33-year-old Emil Kaminski – who is said to have circulated the photos and posted offensive comments on social media.
He accused the “halfwit Canadian guy” of “stirring up a media storm”.
Miss Hawkins, who recently graduated with a masters in aeronautical engineering from Southampton University, was in the middle of a gap year travelling around south-east Asia which began in January.
She went to Malaysia at the start of May and later that month travelled to Borneo.
Police obtained a court order to detain her and three other westerners for four days while they are investigated for indecent behaviour, Sabah state police chief Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman said.
Two Canadian siblings, Lindsey and Danielle Petersen, and a Dutch male surrendered at a police station in Sabah on Tuesday evening, he said.