Posted on 07/23/2007 8:34:19 AM PDT by DogByte6RER
“Gang Rapists” Given Eight Months Exile
By Paul Roberts in London
July 19, 2007
Four men who had sex with a twelve year old girl after breaking into her home in January have been cleared of rape. A judge found the girl from Kurendhoo, Lhaviyani atoll, had consented to have sex with the men after they smashed her bedroom window with an axe.
The judge sentenced the four men to eight months exile from Kurendhoo for sex outside marriage. The sentence apparently contradicts a government commitment in May that child sex offenders would be imprisoned rather than banished.
On January 31 the men aged between nineteen and twenty-five used an axe to smash the window of the girl’s bedroom before taking her from her bed and having sex with her. The state charged the four men with rape.
But in his summation the judge noted “the girl had reached puberty” and found “she was a willing partner,” because she had not screamed, struggled or told her sister-in-law or step mother about the event.
He found the men guilty of consensual sex before marriage, and imposed the minimum sentence of eight months banishment. The standard sentence for sex outside marriage, even for couples who have consensual sex while engaged to be married, is twelve months banishment.
The Attorney General has promised to appeal against the case, but women’s rights activists are furious at the decision. “I am amazed the judge has presumed a twelve year old girl can give consent to four men to have sex with her,” said Aishath Velezinee, of women’s rights NGO Hama Jamiya [Justice Organisation]. “This is obviously a case of gang rape.”
Velezinee is furious “four men, who raped a twelve year old, will be sent to an island, possibly four separate islands, where there will be other vulnerable young females.”
She says the Deputy Home Minister Azima Shukoor had promised a UN conference in Geneva in May, child sex offenders would be imprisoned rather than banished.
Aminath Eenas of the Gender Ministry also revealed her ministry has told the legal authorities sex offenders should be “imprisoned not banished,” and evidence of abuse victims be “heard in private not open courts.”
“We have asked repeatedly, but there is nothing else we can do,” Eenas complained.
Justice Minister Mohamed Jameel said there is “a judicial practice to sentence such offenders to imprisonment,” and did not know why the judge “departed from the prevailing practice.”
But of Azima Shukoor's promise to the UN, Velezine said, “the minister completely distorted the truth. The law clearly still permits banishment for child sexual offences, and the judiciary does not consider this a serious crime.” On Wednesday Azima told Minivan News she was “too busy to discuss this.”
“The sentences send completely the wrong message. It tells men of all ages they can get away with rape, and it tells young women not to come forward as they will be re-victimised by the judicial system,” Velezinee went on.
And she called on the Gender Ministry to “condemn the decision in the strongest possible terms,” and “make sure this goes all the way to the high court.” The Gender Minister, Aishath Didi, has so far refused to comment on the case.
Note: Checked the background of the Maldives and the inhabited Maldivian island of Kurendhoo.
From Wikipedia: "After the long Buddhist period of their history, Maldivians converted to Sunni Islam in the mid-twelfth century. Islam is the official religion of the entire population, as adherence to it is required for citizenship."
"The Religion of Peace" tag fits this article.
So.. did the stone the girl for letting the men gang rape her? /s
Where IS this????
The judge needs to be gang raped by gorillas.
The Maldives...
A nation of islands in the Indian Ocean.
I think the Maldives are near Sri Lanka.
I think a more appropriate sentence would have been firing squad...
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