Malaysian authorities have arrested four Westerners accused of posing naked to take photos on a Malaysian mountain .They arrested 23-year-old Eleanor Hawkins. The British woman was detained when she tried to board a flight in Malaysia's Tawau airport.
Later, Dutch tourist Dylan Snel, 23, and Canadians Lindsey Petersen and his sister Danielle turned themselves in to Malaysian police
Police obtained a court order to detain them for four days while they're investigated for indecent behavior, Sabah state police chief Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman said Wednesday.
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| Westerners appeared in court on public indecency charges, wearing purple jumpsuits |
Malaysia’s foreign affairs ministry identified Lindsey and Danielle Petersen as two of the Westerners accused of posing in the nude for pictures on the country's highest peak last month, just days before an earthquake killed 18 climbers on the mountain.
They were believed to be part of a group of 10 people who stripped naked before taking photos at Mount Kinabalu
The victims were nine Singaporeans, six Malaysians and a Filipino, a Chinese and a Japanese national.
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A tourist takes pictures of Malaysia's Mount Kinabalu a day after the earthquake, June 6, 2015.
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The quake damaged roads and buildings in Sabah and broke one of the twin rock formations on the mountain known as the "Donkey's Ears."
Sabah's deputy chief minister, Joseph Pairin Kitingan, had linked the earthquake to the tourists' act. He said the tragedy was a "confirmation" that they had showed "disrespect" to the mountain.
Sabah's tourism minister, Masidi Manjun, said later that this idea was "misconstrued", but added that the tourists' actions "were against the people of the largest tribe in Sabah".
Some officials have demanded that the foreigners be tried in a native court for flouting local customs.
