Rapist Given Reduced Sentence
This is from the Gulf Times Court RoundUp
Life sentence commuted
A Doha appeals court has commuted to five-year imprisonment the life sentence given to a local teenager, who was convicted of raping a Sri Lankan housemaid.
Two Sri Lankan men in their late 20s were sentenced in absentia by a Doha court of first instance to 15 years imprisonment for helping the accused to perpetrate the crime.
The court heard that the two Sri Lankan accomplices who worked in a car washing facility told the main accused about the woman.
The rape took place soon after midnight on August 14, 2007.
According to the chargesheet, the main accused impersonated as a policeman and dragged the victim to his car, before they drove to a remote area.
“The two accomplices were paid money for their help and they left the car leaving the teenager with the 25-year old maid alone in a remote area.”
The court heard that the woman was too weak to resist the rapist, which was why no trace of violence was visible on her body.
“I shouted for help but in vain,” she said.
Explaining the commutation of the sentence, the court said that it took into consideration the young age of the convict and his clean record.
OK. So two Sri Lankan men tell a ‘local’ man about an Ethiopian house maid, and they plot to kidnap her, take her far out into the desert and to rape her.
Their plot succeeds, only somehow, they are identified and actually brought to trial.
The two Sri Lankans escape, and are convicted in their absence. The ‘local’ man is given a life time sentence. But wait! His sentence is commuted to five years because of his youth and clean record?
If I were a Qatteri father, I would want to know this man’s name. I would not want a man marrying my daughter who had a history of kidnapping a woman and raping her against her will way out in the desert. This man may be young, but he has already shown himself capable of doing something hugely WRONG, according to his own culture, and the law of the country. He plotted. He went to the trouble of impersonating a policeman to intimidate her into his car. He took her to a place where there would be no help for her, and she endured a terrifying experience, an experience she did not know she would live through, and an experience which will haunt her life and make her feel unsafe forever.
And this unnamed ‘local’ teenager gets five years in prison. Here is a good example of where a female judge might make a substantial difference in delivering justice for the Ethiopian housemaid.
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Welcome to yet another double standard of the oh very wise, oh very transparent Arab world. Same things happen in kuwait…funny how a family name has so much weight yet morality, humility and courtesy is considered a weakness.
One day, very soon, when the south eastern countries rise and excel, it is the Arabs that will suffer at their hands due to all the decades of abuse they had suffered in our hands.
im very sadf 😦
It’s the horse I ride in on, Mrm, and the results are world wide . . . no matter what the country, we are not equal before the law. The crime of rape just infuriates me. It is an expression of power in its most primitive form. Getting away with it is getting away with murdering a soul.
I am impressed this guy was sentenced, that he will have a record. Whether or not his name is published, Qatar is a small society – people will know. Is it the same in Kuwait?
the sad and twisted thing is… some sick mentalities mix between having your maid as an employee who provides you with a service… and having her as your own personal slave… they actually use the phrase “buy and sell” when dealing with maids… and therefore if she is his slave then he is entitled to sleep with her since he owns her!
You could bring all the religious men in the Arabian World and sit him down and let them assure him having a maid doesn’t mean she is his slave… and he would still think she is his slave… one of his harem and he is the sultan!
I see no way out of situation except forbidding them to have maids by law! If people are forbidden to have maids if they attack them or mistreat them… they would think one million times before touching one hair of their foreheads!
Danderma, from what I understand, it is a double edged sword – that when the men are attracted to – and use – the maid, the wife is bitterly jealous and beats the maid.
And if the maid runs away, she is accused of absconding, and often, of theft.
In both Qatar and Kuwait, the embassy of the Phillipines has set a minimum wage that is higher than people used to get paid for being house-servants – do you think that has changed the perceptions at all? That these are paid employees? I hear less about Philipinas being raped now, and more about Sri Lankans, Ethiopians – countries who have not yet established minimum wages for laborers outside the country. Do you think it makes a difference, what they are paid?
It all boils down to the perception of women as property. When a man rapes a man, it is to insult him, no? It sends the message that they are no better than women?
I don’t think the gender of the judge is the issue here. I think it’s because the victim is “invisible”. She can go home if she doesn’t like it here, she can go home where no one will know about this, she was asking for it by doing whatever. (Before someone freaks out..this is how I imagine people justifying this will say. This is NOT my opinion.)
I’m very conflicted about reporting rapes with names. Neither Kuwait nor Qatar is an individual based society, the phrase “if she was decent, her _____ wouldn’t have _______” is too common. The policy protects innocent family members from being associated with the crime as much as it protects the criminal.
Five years is not a fair sentence especially when his accomplices got longer sentences. Also, he impersonated a police officer shouldn’t he get a longer sentence based on that alone?
G – you make some good points. Honestly, I laughed, thinking oh yes, she was asking for it – what was she thinking, taking out the garbage? You are right, that is how some people think.
As for the association in Qatar and Kuwait society, yes, I totally understand. And I am beginning to think that it is ONLY the shame that may begin to deter men from thinking they are entitled to TAKE from these powerless victims. It isn’t only women. It is also young men who are abducted and taken to the desert and raped, and they don’t report it either, and if they do, they face horrifying shame.
Sometimes women are tougher on women than men are – so you are right, the gender of the judge is probably not relevant, but I do believe it is societal that these young men are continually given light sentences. It sends a message. It says that “boys will be boys” and that the victims have no status.