Saturday, April 25, 2009

One law for all in UAE? Not.

As is often the case, little of note to report in Oman, except the apparent total abscence of any Omani media follow-up to local blogger Ali's conviction last week (see previous post. Has anyone seen anything in the official media here?)

But I noticed 3 interesting sex related sentences handed down by the courts in the UAE last week (unlike Oman, even the UAE newspapers publish interesting court case outcomes).



Case 1: A Filipino waiter who had what sounds like careless consensual sex with a drunk 16 yr old at his birthday party, gets 3 years in prison followed by deportation for statutory rape. The girl only reported the sexual encounter 6 months later, after she found herself pregnant.

The Dubai Court of First Instance on Tuesday sentenced the 27-year-old Filipino accused to three years' imprisonment after he was found guilty of having sex with a minor against her will. Presiding Judge Al Saeed Mohammad Barghout, who pronounced yesterday's verdict, said the accused will be deported after serving his punishment.

The 27-year-old claimed that he had consensual sex with the girl and denied intoxicating her drink and raping her during his birthday party, as charged by the Public Prosecution.

The lawyer said the girl had sex with two other men and when she discovered her pregnancy (six months after the incident), she accused R.B. of making her pregnant.


Case 2: A British woman, Marnie Pearce, while trying to get divorced from her crazy adulterous Egyptian husband, was accused of having sex with a male friend when separated from the hubby. Found guilty, she loses custody of her 2 young sons, and gets 3 months in prison (reduced from 6 on appeal), to be followed by deportation.

(Although the international outcry is having an effect – Dubai have apparently promised to review the deportation order…)


Case 3: An Emirati man who was found guilty of raping his 22 yr old Indonesian maid gets… 6 months suspended.

... Records said the accused dropped his children and a second Indonesian maid he had employed at a park before rushing home to have sex with the victim.

Public Prosecution records quoted the maid accusing the mechant, who is her sponsor, of trying to pay her Dh1,000, which she rejected, before he raped her.
"He walked into my room while I was ironing the family's clothes... he offered to pay me Dh1,000 in cash, which I refused because it was not my salary. Then he used one hand to silence me, undressed me with the other hand, and raped me," the woman claimed in her statement to the Public Prosecution.

The merchant was charged with raping the housemaid. Medical reports confirmed that she lost her virginity due to the incident.



So, that’s alright then.

4 comments:

  1. I think in the previous post Blue-Chi already linked to Al-Shabiba's article on Al-Zuwaidi's trial. Azzaman newspaper also had a similar article. So yeah, the Omani media did report the trial.

    One more thing... Ali is not a blogger. Gulf News was mistaken about that.

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  2. Things are a 'bit' better in the UAE. Kinda. A bit to the north, murders are treated with psychie wards and 'correction houses'. In Qatar, housemaids are pushed off balconies when they claim their earnings & the "involved people are being investigated" status stays for months.

    Would be interesting to see the official action on the recently released tape.


    -TFK

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  3. In these three stories, we have a pregnant 16 year old girl who really doesn't know who the father is and the accused probable father is in jail, a mother who is in jail for doing the same as her husband did and she will be separated from her children, and a 22 year old Indonesian girl who will be scarred for the rest of her life and can only marry a man who doesn't want a virgin on the wedding night. Not very pretty reading, but at least published in a newspaper that has the guts to print it.

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  4. I read about Al Zuwaidis result during my flight to UK, it was o CNN, SKY and another.

    This does Oman no favours brushing such matters that are common knowldge under the carpet.

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