Swede Jan Philip, 21, and Singaporean Eng Kai Er, 24, donned caps and sunglasses before running to a waiting Honda after they were charged in a magistrate's court yesterday with the offence, which took place around 11pm on Jan 24.

With the help of friends and umbrellas, the two were shielded from the lens of Straits Times photographer Terence Tan.

Eng, a petite woman with short hair, had gone into court wearing a black jacket, white shirt and black skirt but came out in a black T-shirt and dark-coloured bermudas.

The slim and tall Philip, wearing glasses, followed swiftly after.

Here on an exchange programme at the National University of Singapore, he was clad in a full suit when he appeared together with Eng before District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan.

Philip wore a slight smile on his face after the charge had been read to him by an interpreter. Eng, an A*Star (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) scholarship holder pursuing a biomedical science course at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, was straight-faced.

The offence of appearing nude in a public place carries a fine of up to $2,000 or a jail term of up to three months or both.

Their lawyer, Mr William Chan, asked for an adjournment to make representations.

Philip, is out on $5,000 bail, and his passport has been impounded. Eng was not required to post bail.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.