Ajman: A 12-year-old boy, who was accused of having consensual sex with his family’s housemaid two times and impregnating her, has been acquitted.
The Emirati schoolboy and the 28-year-old Ethiopian maid were said to have indulged in two sexual encounters in her room and in his room at the family’s home in June.
Ajman prosecutors accused the boy and the woman of having sex outside marriage that resulted in the Ethiopian’s pregnancy. Medical reports confirmed she is due to give birth next February.
The Ajman Court of First Instance sentenced the boy and the maid to six months in jail each. According to the primary judgement, the Ethiopian will be deported following the completion of her jail term. The boy has been acquitted in the Appeal Court.
The Emirati family hired advocate Eisa Bin Haider to defend their 12-year-old son.
“My client was under 12 years old when the incident happened. Prosecutors asked the court to try him as a juvenile [under 18 years old] and to have him reprimanded, chastised and/or rehabilitated as per Juveniles Federal Law number 9 of 1976 of Delinquent Juveniles and Homeless and not imprisoned. Prosecutors asked the court to consider that the alleged crime was committed by someone between 7 and 16.
“Surprisingly, the primary court modified the prosecutors’ request to deem the boy a juvenile and instead considered him an adult and tried him as per article of the Federal Penal Law. The boy was not even notified about the modification and hence he was deprived from defending himself,” Bin Haidar said before the Ajman Appellate Court.
Records said the first sexual encounter happened during April around 10pm when the boy walked in to his niece’s room where the maid was babysitting. The boy was said to have put the maid’s shaila on her mouth then removed her clothes and had sex with her.
During the first encounter the house was empty, just like the second time when the boy had sex with the housemaid in his bedroom shortly after he walked out from the shower in May. The family rushed the Ethiopian to hospital when it was discovered that she was four weeks pregnant on June 28.
‘Impossible’
Bin Haider told the appeal court: “My client is a small boy and he should have been tried like one. He is not an adult. Records said my client made a reservation in a Ajman hotel and had sex with the maid there. This is impossible and illogical. There is no way on earth that any hotel management would accept a hotel reservation for an underage person… actually it is illegal.
“Obviously the Ethiopian maid was involved in a sexual affair with a third party… because she had disputes with the brother of my client; she alleged that the 12-year-old impregnated her.”
A third party should have been accused of having sex with the maid and put on trial instead of the Emirati boy, said Bin Haider.
“My client did not commit the crime. During police and prosecution questioning, he denied having sex or being the baby’s father. Yet the Court of First Instance considered the maid’s confession only and disregarded the boy’s denial. She fabricated this case to blackmail the family in order not to deport her,” said Bin Haider.
