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| Arabia | |
| Dubai sentences Norwegian woman who reported rape | |
| 2013-07-20 | |
| Interior designer Marte Deborah Dalelv was on a business trip in Dubai when she says she was raped. The 24-year-old reported the March attack to the police but found herself charged with having extramarital sex, drinking alcohol, and perjury. Convicted earlier this week, she says she is appealing against the verdict. The appeal hearing is scheduled for early September. Describing the sentence as "very harsh", she told the AFP news agency: "I am very nervous and tense. But I hope for the best and I take one day at a time. I just have to get through this." The case has angered rights groups and the authorities in Norway. Ms Dalelv says she had been on a night out with colleagues on 6 March when the rape took place. She reported it to the police, who proceeded to confiscate her passport and seize her money. She was charged four days later on three counts, including having sex outside marriage. Her alleged attacker, she said, received a 13-month sentence for extra-marital sex and alcohol consumption. The Norwegian government had secured Ms Dalelv's conditional release so, since being charged, she has been living under the protection of the Norwegian Seamans' Centre in Dubai. But she told Norway's NRK News that following her sentencing on Tuesday she was now officially wanted by the Dubai authorities. "I should have been imprisoned since Tuesday," she said. "But I have been told they are not searching for me." The sentence has been condemned by Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide who is quoted as saying that it "flies in the face of our notion of justice" and was "highly problematic from a human rights perspective".
The London-based Emirates Centre for Human Rights called on the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to which Dubai belongs, to quash Ms Dalelv's conviction. It said the UAE's claims that it is attempting to end discrimination against women was undermined by a legal system that "prohibits the achievement of justice for cases of sexual violence against women". Currently, the law stipulates that, to gain a rape conviction, there must either be a confession or for four adult male witnesses to the crime. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #7 Ahh, Islam. Where a woman is guilty until proven guilty. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2013-07-20 12:21 |
| #6 Swedish Firm Fires Raped Norwegian in Dubai |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2013-07-20 12:07 |
| #5 Here's an idea: When in a moslem country (and especially if you're female), DON'T GO OUT DRINKING. Better idea: Don't go to a moslem country. I travelled all over Western Europe, and went any place/did anything I damned well pleased. (Obviously, nothing illegal.) Sure, some men acted like idiots, the same way some men here do, and the problem got taken care of the same way. I decided a long time ago that I wouldn't spend one dime of my hard-earned money in any country where I had to walk around in a sack, or ask permission to breathe, or go outside only if I was accompanied by my non-existent husband. Sure, one should be respectful of the culture of the country one is visiting (like don't go to church in shorts and flip-flops), but if that culture restricts where and with whom I can go, to whom I can try to talk, etc., - well, there are a LOT of other fascinating countries I can spend my money in. |
| Posted by: Barbara 2013-07-20 09:53 |
| #4 One'd assume that a Norwegian would be used to such things by now. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2013-07-20 09:45 |
| #3 Norway huh? Used to be some Vikings round about that area. Guess they died out, huh? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2013-07-20 08:13 |
| #2 She's lucky she wasn't stoned. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2013-07-20 05:15 |
| #1 I am reading some Norwegian girl in her twenties is drinking with a Moslem man? Look down the barrel honey and put our finger on the trigger. And she got raped? And the Dubai police stood there laughing? Norway? It IS funny. Some people are too stupid to be let out on the street. Pam and Debby in short shorts and tie dye halter tops make the tour of downtown Goatville and look at the colorful customs of the local Moslems. And she is "appealing"? yeah? Bend over, sweetcheeks. |
| Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 2013-07-20 03:24 |