Malaysia could jail tourists for summit strip stunt

Four western tourists were hauled before a court in Malaysia on Thursday, accused of indecency for their stunt atop the nation's highest mountain.

As CBS News correspondent Seth Doane reports, posing nude isn't typically blamed for triggering earthquakes, but that's the allegation which has been levelled against a pair of Canadian siblings, a Dutch citizen, and a British national -- the hikers currently being held by Malaysian police.

Along with about six other westerners, the group allegedly stripped naked at the summit of Mount Kinabalu -- long revered as a sacred mountain by some Malaysians -- on May 30, and posted proof of the stunt on social media.

A Malaysian indigenous group and at least one regional official have accused the group of disrespecting the spirits, to deadly affect.

Malaysian law enforcement officials were expected to charge the four tourists on Friday. Malaysian officials have vowed to apprehend the others six, if they are still in the area, and punish them, too.

At Thursday's court session in Sabah state the four suspects were remanded in custody for four days.

The Briton, 23-year-old Eleanore Hawkins, appeared Thursday on the cover of several British tabloids.

CBS News spoke with her father, Tim, Thursday morning. He declined to go on camera but later wrote that the family had been able to speak by phone to Hawkins, who "is obviously quite scared and upset. She knows what she did was stupid and disrespectful and is very sorry."

On June 5, six days after the scandalous stripping session, a magnitude-6 earthquake struck the Malaysian island of Borneo, killing 18 people, stranding hikers and triggering landslides.

Local authorities expressed outrage over the nudity in the remote region. Sabah state's tourism minister Masidi Manjun said the act was "totally abhorrent and totally unacceptable to be done on a sacred mountain."

Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Pairin was quoted as admonishing the tourists for showing "disrespect to the sacred mountain," blaming them for the catastrophe.

Mount Kinabalu is considered sacred by some locals, and the United Nations considers it quite special, too; the park around it has been dubbed a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its rich biodiversity.

The tourists face charges of "committing obscene acts in public," which could carry a maximum sentence of three months in jail or a fine.

A local tribe is said to be preparing a ceremony to appease the spirits. Doane notes that in other more urban parts of Malaysia, the mountain is not considered sacred.