UAE | Crime
Farmhouse rapists escape death penalty
Three men sentenced to death for kidnapping and raping two girls at a remote Sharjah farmhouse have had their sentences cut to life imprisonment.
- By Bassam Za'za', Senior Reporter
- Published: 01:22 February 22, 2008
Sharjah: Three men sentenced to death for kidnapping and raping two girls at a remote Sharjah farmhouse have had their sentences cut to life imprisonment.
The Sharjah Sharia Court of Appeal sentenced 23-year-old Pakistani Y.H., and Emirati brothers, 26-year-old A.S. and 24-year-old M.S., to life in prison (25 years per UAE law.)
The Sharjah Public Prosecution charged the trio with kidnapping, forcefully undressing and raping two Emirati females, F.M. and S.N. The men were also charged with consuming liquor and drink-driving. A 19-year-old Iranian girl, N.J., was charged with aiding and abetting Y.H. and plotting the rape.
Jasem Al Naqbi, of Excel Advocates and Legal Consultants, told Gulf News yesterday that he will now appeal to the Abu Dhabi Supreme Court to reduce the life sentence.
Al Naqbi said in his defence: "My clients didn't kidnap or rape the two girls who agreed to have sex with them for money. They had consensual sex with the girls and they didn't rape them. The girls also confirmed before the court that my clients didn't beat them or treat them violently when they were in the farm... the doctors who examined the girls in a hospital in Umm Al Quwain reported that the girls didn't have any bruises or injuries."
Court records said the brother of one of the victims testified that his sister and sister-in-law went to get his cellphone from his fiancé's (N.J.) house about 2.30am. He claimed that when he phoned to check on his sister if she was on her way back, he heard some men asking her to shut the car door. Thereafter, the incident happened and the girls reported the police.
"The girls claimed in their statements that the men had intercourse with each of them several times and in different rooms in the farm such as the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. One of them even claimed that she showered after each time... besides they didn't call for help. There is concrete contradiction between the verbal evidence and the technical one regarding the assault," argued Al Naqbi.
The Sharjah Sharia Court of First Instance gave the three men a death sentence. N.J. was sentenced to five years in jail followed by deportation.
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