12:15 AM
Editor
The High Court has ruled that in cases concerning sexual offences
against children where there is not sufficient evidence as specified in
the law, the offence can be proven in court based on circumstantial
evidence.
The unanimous ruling was passed by a panel of three judges who
presiding over an appeal lodged by a defendant, who had been sentenced
to 10 years in jail by the Baa Atoll Fehendhoo Magistrate Court on
charges of sexual abuse involving a child.
Act number 12/2009,
detailing special actions to be taken in cases of sexual offenses
against children, states that a minimum of 5 out of 12 types of evidence
specified in Article 47 must be presented for the crime to be proven in
court.
An official of the Baa Atoll Fehendhoo Magistrate Court told Minivan
News that the case had been concluded by the court on June 21, 2011.
She said the incident itself involved allegations that Ali Abdul
Rahman of Blue House, B. Fehendhoo had sexually abused an underage boy
from the same island on July 24, 2010.
She also confirmed that the case had been concluded regardless of the
required five types of evidence not having been presented, on the
grounds that there was enough circumstantial evidence to prove the
offence had occurred without a doubt.
Minivan News reported
earlier this month a case involving an underage girl who was was
sentenced under Sharia law to 100 lashes and eight months house arrest
for fornication with a 29 year-old man. The man was sentenced under
common law to 10 years in prison.
Via Minivan News
Posted in: Society
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