In one of the shocking incident, a Dutch tourist who alleged of being drugged and raped in an upmarket nightclub in Doha Qatar is convicted by the court of Qatar for having the illicit sex out of wedlock. This seems to be the most controversial judgment which may open the doors to the others to take a similar stand before the court of law. What exactly happened in this case? Read the complete report here.
[su_expand more_text=”READ MORE” less_text=” ” height=”0″ hide_less=”yes” link_style=”button” link_align=”center”] According to the reports, a Dutch woman was on her vacation to Doha on a tourist visa and while she reportedly visited one of the upmarket nightclubs in Qatar where she met this man Omar Abdullah al-Hasan, who according to her allegedly raped her after mixing the drugs in her drink. Since the woman was married the according to the laws prevailing in the Qatar she was convicted for having the illicit sex with the other man outside the wedlock.
According to the sources, the court has ordered the woman to be deported from Qatar to the Netherlands after the ruling was formalized that is expected to take place within next few days. The above fact has been confirmed by the ambassador to the Netherlands Yvette Burghgraef- van Eechoud to the Al Jazeera news media.
The accused man in this case identified as Omar Abdullah al-Hassan was also convicted, not for the rape but for having the sex outside of marriage that is considered to be a very serious offense in the most conservative Gulf Countries. A court official, who spoke with the reporter of Al Jazeera, only on condition of anonymity, said that the man was from Syria.
According to the prevailing law in Qatar, the accused man, Hasan will receive 100 lashes for the illicit sex acts another 40 lashes for drinking in the public place said the sources. Hasan and the Dutch citizen, identified as “Laura”, were not present as the judge read out the verdicts.
According to the information provided by the court official “Had she been a Muslim woman, she would have received at least five years in jail. No one can get out of such charges here in Qatar,” he said.
Van Eechoud said the woman had asked her to convey the message to the media and the public to respect her privacy at this time. “We will do everything we can to get her out of the country as soon as possible. Under the circumstances, Laura is doing fine,” she said.
Laura, the victim, who is now a convict in the case, has revealed before the media that, she was drugged during the party in the month of March at Crystal Lounge nightclub, at the W Doha Hotel and that she woke up next morning in an unfamiliar apartment where she realized that she had been sexually assaulted.
She said that she had been on holiday at the time of the incident took place, and reported the incident to Qatari police. She was arrested on March 14 and has been held ever since on charges of committing illicit sex acts. The accused Hasan has acknowledged of having sex with the Dutch woman but said that it had been consensual, according to Dutch media reports.
The Dutch embassy told Al Jazeera that officials have been in close contact with Laura and her family in the Netherlands for the past few months. The victim’s mother was quoted by Dutch media describing the ordeal her daughter was going through as a “nightmare”.
“I’m shaking in my legs. I can’t believe it,” the woman’s mother, Marian, told the Dutch news program Een Vandaag after learning she would be deported. “She has been sentenced. I don’t know for what but I don’t care. This is the best I could have wished for.”
The above case may lead to giving rise to the situation wherein the real rape case may not get reported out of the fear of getting punished in return but at the same time if someone who is reporting the rape falsely then it would be the best example set by the court for them. What do you think about this case? Please do leave your comments on this serious issue.
Source: AL Jazeera
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