Post by Willow on Jun 14, 2016 10:31:37 GMT 9.5
Qatar rape victim punished for ‘having sex
Doha court has convicted a Dutch woman of extramarital sex after she told the police she had been drugged and raped while on holiday in Doha.
The 22-year-old woman was immediately arrested on March 14 after she reported the crime to the authorities. She has been held since then on charges of “illicit relations” which carries a sentence of up to seven years in jail in the conservative Gulf country.
The judge handed the woman a one-year suspended jail sentence yesterday. The court demanded that she pay 3,000 riyals ($1100) in fines before she could secure her deportation. A court official told Al Jazeera that the sentence was “lenient”.
“Had she been a Muslim woman, she would have received at least five years in jail. No one can get out of such charges here in Qatar,” he said.
The male defendant, named by one official as Omar Abdullah al-Hasan, a Syrian, was sentenced to 100 lashes for the illicit sex and 40 lashes for consuming alcohol. He will be examined to see if he is fit enough for his punishment before he too is deported.
The woman, who had to appear in court three times, said that the attack happened after she had visited a central Doha hotel with a friend.
Brian Lokollo, her lawyer, said: “She went dancing but when she returned to the table after the first sip of her drink she realised that it had been drugged. She really didn’t feel very well.”
Al Jazeera reported that the attack took place at the Crystal Lounge nightclub inside the five-star W Doha Hotel, in the West Bay of Doha. The woman remembered nothing until the following morning when she woke up in an unknown apartment half naked, with her clothes torn. She “realised, to her great horror, that she had been raped”, Mr Lokollo said.
The defendant denied the rape charge, insisting that their night together had been consensual and that the woman had asked for money.
Human rights groups have repeatedly lobbied Qatar to change its religious-based laws that treat sex outside marriage as a serious crime.
According to Amnesty International, in 2013 more than half the women in prison in Qatar had been jailed on similar charges, many of them rape victims who had tried to report the crime.
The authorities will only pursue a rape conviction based on forensics examinations of the rape survivor, not their testimony. James Lynch from Amnesty said. “Just because there is no presence of injuries does not mean that consent was given. The threshold for prosecuting rape is extremely high.”
He explained that the Qatar authorities say they have no option but to declare that a rape victim had extramarital relations and prosecute her accordingly.
The Dutch authorities confirmed that the woman was released yesterday before her deportation. Bert Koenders, the Dutch foreign minister, wrote on Twitter that he was “relieved” by the verdict. The woman’s mother said she was “so happy” at the news of her daughter’s release. “I do not know yet when she gets home, but this is not most important,” she told Dutch television. “The most important [thing] is that she gets home,” she said.
Similar cases have raised serious questions about whether Qatar is fit to host the World Cup 2022.
There is nowhere in the Middle East that I would go for a holiday, ever
Doha court has convicted a Dutch woman of extramarital sex after she told the police she had been drugged and raped while on holiday in Doha.
The 22-year-old woman was immediately arrested on March 14 after she reported the crime to the authorities. She has been held since then on charges of “illicit relations” which carries a sentence of up to seven years in jail in the conservative Gulf country.
The judge handed the woman a one-year suspended jail sentence yesterday. The court demanded that she pay 3,000 riyals ($1100) in fines before she could secure her deportation. A court official told Al Jazeera that the sentence was “lenient”.
“Had she been a Muslim woman, she would have received at least five years in jail. No one can get out of such charges here in Qatar,” he said.
The male defendant, named by one official as Omar Abdullah al-Hasan, a Syrian, was sentenced to 100 lashes for the illicit sex and 40 lashes for consuming alcohol. He will be examined to see if he is fit enough for his punishment before he too is deported.
The woman, who had to appear in court three times, said that the attack happened after she had visited a central Doha hotel with a friend.
Brian Lokollo, her lawyer, said: “She went dancing but when she returned to the table after the first sip of her drink she realised that it had been drugged. She really didn’t feel very well.”
Al Jazeera reported that the attack took place at the Crystal Lounge nightclub inside the five-star W Doha Hotel, in the West Bay of Doha. The woman remembered nothing until the following morning when she woke up in an unknown apartment half naked, with her clothes torn. She “realised, to her great horror, that she had been raped”, Mr Lokollo said.
The defendant denied the rape charge, insisting that their night together had been consensual and that the woman had asked for money.
Human rights groups have repeatedly lobbied Qatar to change its religious-based laws that treat sex outside marriage as a serious crime.
According to Amnesty International, in 2013 more than half the women in prison in Qatar had been jailed on similar charges, many of them rape victims who had tried to report the crime.
The authorities will only pursue a rape conviction based on forensics examinations of the rape survivor, not their testimony. James Lynch from Amnesty said. “Just because there is no presence of injuries does not mean that consent was given. The threshold for prosecuting rape is extremely high.”
He explained that the Qatar authorities say they have no option but to declare that a rape victim had extramarital relations and prosecute her accordingly.
The Dutch authorities confirmed that the woman was released yesterday before her deportation. Bert Koenders, the Dutch foreign minister, wrote on Twitter that he was “relieved” by the verdict. The woman’s mother said she was “so happy” at the news of her daughter’s release. “I do not know yet when she gets home, but this is not most important,” she told Dutch television. “The most important [thing] is that she gets home,” she said.
Similar cases have raised serious questions about whether Qatar is fit to host the World Cup 2022.
There is nowhere in the Middle East that I would go for a holiday, ever