http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/0004/29/A31225-2000Apr29.shtml Woman jailed in Yemen because she was raped Source: AP | Published: Saturday April 29, 5:28 AM SAN'AA, Yemen - A woman who was repeatedly raped by her father and made pregnant by him was sentenced to five years in prison by a Yemeni court, a source in the prosecutor's office said today. The judge sentenced the father to 20 years in prison. The sentence handed down to the daughter, who is in her 20s, stems from a law in Yemen that allows for the punishment of a rape victim, said Gamal el-Adimi, a private lawyer who is not connected to the case. The case caused a sensation after it was publicised in March when police arrested the father following a tip-off by a female neighbour. The daughter had confided in the neighbour that her father, after bouts of drinking, had been raping her and her older sister for more than two years, said the prosecution source, who asked not to be identified. She gave the neighbour permission to contact the police. The court also ruled that the daughter, who is about five months pregnant, would relinquish her baby to her mother, the source said. Judgment was delivered on Tuesday but only disclosed today. The names of the father and daughters have not been revealed. It was not clear why the older daughter, also in her 20s, was not prosecuted. Yemen, an impoverished country on the Arabian Peninsula, imposes the death penalty for rape and murder, but it was not immediately clear why the father did not receive the death penalty. Lawyer el-Adimi said rape victims normally receive shorter sentences if they have reported the matter to the police. He added the law has been widely criticised. "Such a law only serves to dissuade women from coming forward about these crimes," he said. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
