Police acted "overzealously" when they arrested a 28-year-old Kazakh woman and took her to court for dancing in her bikini during a Stella Maris religious procession on Saturday, according to lawyers.

The incident happened during a band march when a statue is carried to the seafront and placed on a pedestal there.

“The police should have exercised discretion and escorted her away instead of prosecuting and exposing the court to being perceived as open to time-wasting prosecutions such as this,” lawyer Andrew Borg Cardona said.

Lawyer Charmaine Cherrett also said the incident did not merit arrest. If the police wanted to take the young woman to court they could have taken her details and asked her to turn up for a district sitting.

But a spokeswoman for the police said “police could not legally administer a warning in this case” as the crime she was charged with – disturbing a religious service – stated that the offender was liable to imprisonment".

The police also said the woman gave two different locations when asked for her address. 

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