The Kuantan Syariah Court has reportedly sentenced two Muslim brothers to six strokes of the cane for drinking alcohol in what scholars today said was a legal first for the multicultural nation.

The New Straits Times said the Syariah Court handed down the penalty yesterday on brothers Mohamad Nizam Ibrahim, 32, and Mohamad Nasha, 30, factory workers who had been found drinking stout at a restaurant.

They were also fined RM5,000 each.

Judge Abdul Rahman Yunus said his ruling was intended to remind Muslims not to drink alcohol, which is forbidden by Islam.

"The excuse given by both offenders, that they are in the lower income group and therefore should not be severely punished, is unacceptable," he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times .

While Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country, with large Indian and Chinese minorities, alcohol is widely available and Muslims are rarely punished for consuming it.

However in recent years they have come under increasing pressure to follow religious laws, as political parties vie to show their Islamic credentials.

The brothers were arrested in August last year as part of crackdown by the Islamic Religious Department in Pahang, which is normally seen as a moderate state compared to its more hardline northern neighbours.

They pleaded guilty believing they would be let off lightly and could have received jail sentences of up to three years under the state's religious legislation, said the New Straits Times .

Caning, carried out with a thick length of rattan which breaks open the skin and leaves lasting scars, is routinely handed out by civil courts for a range of serious offences.

No procedures for caning

But Islamic scholars said they believed this week's decision was the first time the penalty was ordered against someone caught drinking.

"This is probably the first case. I haven't heard of this before because in many cases before this, the judge just imposed a fine," said Abdul Bashir Mohamad, head of the Syariah Department at the National University of Malaysia (UKM).

The academic welcomed the decision, noting though there was no provision under Islamic law for how it should be carried out - what type of cane should be used and with what force the caning should be inflicted.

"There are no procedures in all the states for caning. They have the punishment but they don't make any clarification on how to make the action," he told AFP .

Malaysia has a federal civil law system as well as state-based Sharia courts - Islamic law courts under which only Muslims can be tried for religious offences. The two systems operate separately.

Muslim Malays make up some 60 percent of Malaysia's 25 million population, with Chinese accounting for 25 percent and Indians 7.5 percent.