I may not agree with every decision, but the judge did not give into Western whining because their cultural sensitivities are out of whack with that of the Muslim world's.
As for the girl, I thought her punishment fit the crime based on what sharia law says about premarital relations. Hopefully this incident will serve as a lesson for others not to break the law.
ABU DHABI // A teenager who alleged she had been gang-raped by five men but later recanted her claim has been sentenced to a year in prison for consensual sex.
The five she had initially accused were acquitted of rape by the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court today, but were found guilty of less serious charges.
The Emirati teenager LH, 18, was found to have consented to intercourse with YM, a 19-year-old military police officer who was also sentenced to a year in jail after the rape charge against him was changed to one of consensual sex by the judge.
Two further defendants, both referred to as HA, were sentenced to three months in prison for being alone in the company of a woman.
The fifth and sixth defendants were fined Dh5,000 (US$1,400) for violations of public decency.
The latter verdicts represented rare court rulings in which sharia'a law was directly imposed. Police rarely arrest people based on such charges alone; more often they are secondary charges typically connected to sex offences.
Genetic material recovered from the scene led the judge to convict YM of consensual sex, while acquitting HA.
The forensics report found that LH was not a virgin and that there was no genital bruising. It found 12 bruises ranging from 1cm to 7cm long on her upper lip, hands, thighs, knee and behind her left ear.
"Some of the bruises are new, two to three days old, and some of them are old, seven to 15 days old," the report said. The report attributed the bruises to body pressure or being hit with a solid material. During the trial, prosecutors claimed that LH had gone for a drive on May 2 with her male Emirati friend, HA, in Baniyas, where they had intercourse. Prosecutors said the fact she agreed to go with him alone in the car partly showed her consent to sex.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll ... 9419669587
