Sister’s Forum calls for severe punishment for perpetratorAmran child recounts her rape, Criminal Investigation begins interrogation [Archives:2006/925/Local News]
By: Waheeb Al-Nasari
SANA'A, March 1 ) The Criminal Investigation administration released the two sons of a man accused of raping an 8-year-old Amran child named Sawsen. They had been taken hostage instead of their father, Sheikh NAME.
Sources said the accused is now in a security administration rest house and not in prison, adding that Criminal Investigation has begun interrogating him. Security officers also visited the incident area and began investigating the victim's family, who is being pressured to withdraw the case.
The child's grandfather denied any previous disputes with the suspect. He rushed Sawsen to Amran Hospital last Thursday where Criminal Investigation interrogated her. She mentioned the suspect by name because she knows him. Doctors confirmed that she had been raped.
A rumor went around that the suspect was in the protection of a security official from last Thursday until Saturday.
The Sister's Forum adopted the little girl's case, filing a case against the suspect after obtaining legal authorization from Sawsen's family. The forum strongly denounced the crime reflecting moral decline and lack of religious consciousness. They called on civil societies to declare their denouncement of the crime and back Sawsen.
The Yemen Times obtained a copy of a forum statement calling for pressuring Judiciary Control to speed seizing and interrogating the perpetrator. They called for him to be referred to judiciary, demanding severe punishment be inflicted upon him. They also called for him to be a warning to all who think about committing assaults against children.
Authorities released Sawsen's grandfather Monday following his detention last Friday. Sawsen also was returned to her family after being discharged from Amran Hospital. This followed protests of some humanitarian and legal activists due to fears of cheating the case and continuing detention of Sawsen's grandfather.
Sister's Forum head Amal Al-Basha stated in a release to the Yemen Times that rape cases have increased in recent times. She called on government and non-governmental institutions to establish laws to punish perpetrators, wondering that the perpetrator's punishment is a three to 15 year prison term.
Following his release from prison, the victim's 80-year-old grandfather confirmed that he was pressured to withdraw the case and accept tribal conciliation instead of judiciary procedures. He said pressure came from influential individuals and sheikhs.
He said, “Between YR 2,000 and 3,000 was offered to me to withdraw the case of raping my little one and pardon the criminal.” He called for Sharia law to be implemented against the perpetrator.
With agony and tears pouring down his white beard, he recounted Sawsen's return: “She came trembling in fear, with torn and blood-stained clothes. She was weeping and her lips were blue and cracked, saying NAME had raped her.” He raised his trembling hands toward the sky asking God to punish the perpetrator.
It is a shocking crime to hear. Sawsen appears very thin due to malnutrition and the loss of her mother. She recounted her story with a bent head, saying she was grazing her goats when NAME came and took her, telling her they would play together. She said he out a shawl into her mouth and she felt nothing after that because she fainted. She said she went to her grandfather's house when she came back to herself.
Repeated investigations revealed that the perpetrator was NAME, who is now a fugitive. Amran security manager Luffi Anash justified authorities' leniency by saying he was not sure the perpetrator was NAME. He said investigations are ongoing, although Prosecution and Criminal Investigation know nothing about the case, not even the girl's hospital admission or her grandfather's detention.
Sawsen's uncle Mohammed Muhsin Saleh who came from Sana'a when he heard the news said, “We follow up Criminal Investigation and security in vain. Some of the security officers are trying to weaken the case by telling us to accept tribal arbitration.”
He said when they demand the perpetrator's arrest, they often are told that it is arresting one of his sons. He added that they possess nothing enabling them to stand in the face of wealthy perpetrator NAME.
Sawsen's lawyer Muneer Ahmed Al-Saqaf considers this a serious criminal case, whose punishment is between three and 15 years' imprisonment. Law stresses the punishment when the victim is a minor under age 14.
Al-Saqaf said Prosecution should undertake penal procedures in such serious cases. Security and judicial officials were required to inform Prosecution immediately about the procedures, according to Article 92 of procedure law. He added that Amran security authorities did not do their duty properly by not informing Prosecution and leaving the suspect free because of his wealth and influence. They arrested Sawsen and her grandfather instead.
Al-Saqaf called on the attorney general and all security apparatuses to live up to their commitments and be just to Sawsen.
Some citizens say the alleged rapist resorted to a local authority influential individual for protection and to pressure Sawsen's family to withdraw the case. He is a wealthy landowner married to two wives and around age 55. Rumors in Amran say there are efforts to replace him with one of his sons with the help of a local governing authority official. The release of the perpetrator's two sons included one of their employees detained with them.
Sawsen is an orphan, cared for by her weak old grandfather, as opposed to the wealthy perpetrator backed by corruption. Sawsen and her grandfather need community consolidation to defend themselves in this humanitarian case.
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