I read about it elsewhere. Apparently what happened is that she could only be legally caned if she had also been sentenced to a gaol term, because only the prisons department has the legal right to conduct canings. Since she had already been tried and convicted, and since she can't be tried twice for the same beer, and since she had not been given a gaol term but only a fine, she could not legally be caned. Ergo, she gets off with a fine and the mullahs are pissed as hell.
Devious, treacherous, murderous, neanderthal, sub-human of the West.