By Darrin Simmons
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – A United Arab Emirates court has sentenced to death a 57-year-old Indian man who was recently convicted of raping a seven-year-old girl at a school where he worked as a janitor.
The plaintiff’s lawyer, Hussain Al Jaziri, reported that the little girl displayed multiple signs of sexual abuse. “Her aunt, who is accustomed to giving her a bath after school, asked her to remove her trousers. Upon refusing to do so, and after her aunt’s insistence, traces of blood and semen were found in the girl’s underpants,” stated Al Jaziri.
“This is in itself a violation of the educational convention…The girl and her parents have suffered psychological damage and trauma following the incident. They will continue to suffer because of what happened,” continued Al Jaziri.
According to court documents, on April 14th, the victim was dragged by the convicted into the school kitchen while she was returning from the administration office where she dropped off school papers per her teacher’s request.
The convicted then threatened the victim, saying that he would kill her and her mother if she told anyone of the incident. It is believed that the teacher who sent the girl to the administration office left the country a few days before the convicted was arrested.
Claims against the school have been made by the prosecution for failing to provide the safety and security to one of its students while on its premises due to a lack of control and surveillance of the school workers.
The defense team of the convicted argued that neither a blood or DNA test were conducted to tie the former janitor to the rape, citing the unsupervised presence of the girl in the school as the direct reason for the crime.
The conviction of capital punishment was delivered unanimously by the presiding Judge Sayyed Abdel Basir and two other judges on three charges of rape, sexual assault and issuing of death threats. However, the judgment must be confirmed by the court of appeals and cassation.
“Hopefully this verdict will provide the victim’s family with closure and security knowing that justice was served. I also urge parents and child caretakers everywhere to promptly report any act of aggression or abuse taken against their children as refraining from reporting these incidents only protects the offender,” stated Al Jaziri.
For more information, please see the following:
Aljazeera – UAE sentences Indian man to death over rape – June 29, 2013
Gulf News – Janitor rapist gets death penalty – June 29, 2013
Straits News – UAE court hands death sentence to Indian convicted of raping young girl – June 29, 2013
Zee News – Indian man given death penalty in UAE for raping 7-year-old girl – June 29, 2013
