Australia’s ‘Budgie Nine’ walk free in Malaysia after drunken Grand Prix antics
The men stripped down to swimwear emblazoned with the Malaysian flag but expressed remorse and walked free without charge
Nine Australian men who had provoked anger in Malaysia by donning skimpy swimwear bearing the Muslim-majority country’s national flag at a Formula 1 race were let off with no charges on Thursday.
Four days after their arrest, the nine racing fans were brought to a Malaysian court to face potential charges of public indecency and national insult. But after expressing remorse – and receiving a dressing-down by a Malaysian judge – they were released without charge.
The stunt by the nine men – who were celebrating countryman Daniel Ricciardo’s Malaysia Grand Prix win on Sunday – offended some Malaysians and sparked a debate back home over boorish behaviour abroad by Aussie sports fans.
What might be seen as a foolish prank or Aussie ‘blokey’ behaviour in Australia can be seen very differently in another country
The detainees, all in their 20s, were dubbed the “Budgie Nine” by Australian media, a reference to their Speedo-style swimsuits, known colloquially in Australia as “budgie smugglers”. A budgie, short for budgerigar, is an Australian parakeet. The close-fitting swimwear is so named for leaving little to the imagination.
“Your conduct on October 2 was totally inappropriate by dressing down to your swimming trunks,” Judge Harith Sham Mohamad Yasin told them. “It hurt the feelings of all Malaysians to display the flag in such a manner.”
But he took into account their youth, expressions of remorse, and the fact they had already been held since Sunday.
“I hereby caution and discharge all of you,” he said.