State and judicial authorities have failed to provide a timeline for
the appeal of a 15 year-old rape victim sentenced to flogging for a
separate incidence of fornication, despite repeated pledges and promises
of wider legal reform.
The 15 year-old minor from the island of
Feydhoo in Shaviyani Atoll was convicted to 100 lashes and eight months
of house arrest in February 2013, after confessing to fornication with
another man during an investigation into allegations she was sexually
abused at the hands of her stepfather. Those allegations arose with the
earlier discovery of a dead baby buried in the outdoor shower area of
the family’s home.
A month after the sentence was delivered,
sources on Feydhoo told Minivan News that islanders had been raising
concerns to the authorities over the girl’s abuse by other men on the
island since 2009.
Sources at the time accused law enforcement officials, civil society and successive governments of failing on every level to protect the minor.
Widespread international coverage of the sentencing has since led to over two million people signing an Avaaz.org petition
calling for her sentence to be quashed, a moratorium on flogging, and
reform of laws to protect women and girls in the Maldives.
Despite
the country’s international reputation as an romantic island getaway
for couples, fornication (sex outside marriage) is illegal in the
Maldives and is subject to Sharia punishments under the 1968 penal code.
However,
statistics from the Department of Judicial Administration show that
flogging sentences are overwhelmingly issued to women. Of the 129
fornication cases filed last in 2011, 104 resulted in sentences – 93 of
whom were female.
Meanwhile, the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) has dismissed calls
to suspend Supreme Court Judge Ali Hameed following the judge’s
appearance in at least three recently-leaked sex videos appearing to
depict him fornicating with unidentified foreign women in a Colombo
Hotel room, citing “lack of evidence”.
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