A 15-year-old in the Maldives whose father is accused of repeatedly molesting her and killing the resulting baby risks being flogged for “fornication” with another man under the nation’s strict Islamic law, a police source said Monday.
In the course of inquiries into the rape case, investigators say they unearthed evidence of the girl having had consensual sex with another man, which is an offence in the Indian Ocean holiday destination, the source told AFP.
Women, including minors, having consensual sex outside marriage can be charged in the Maldives, where convicts can be publicly flogged. Minors receive the punishment when they reach 18, the age of majority.
The child’s step-father is accused by police of repeatedly molesting the girl and fathering a child by her which he subsequently murdered. The girl’s mother has been charged with helping dispose of the infant’s body, police said.
“We completed the investigation (into the murder of the infant) and gave a report to the prosecutor general’s office,” Maldivian police spokesman Hassan Haneef told AFP by telephone.
He declined to give details saying that Maldivian common law did not allow the discussion of any case involving a minor.
The local Haveeru newspaper quoted an unnamed official from the prosecutor’s office saying that the fornication charge was unrelated to the rape which had been separately dealt with.
The legal system of the Maldives, a nation of 330,000 Sunni Muslims known for its coral-fringed islands and sandy beaches, has elements of Islamic Sharia law as well as English common law.
The country carries out the flogging of women despite calls from the UN Human Rights Council to drop the practice.
In September, a Maldivian court ordered a public flogging for a 16-year-old girl who confessed to having pre-marital sex. Her 29-year-old lover was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The gang-rape last month in the Indian capital of a 23-year-old student who subsequently died has also sparked protests over crime against women in neighbouring South Asian nations including Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
| Posted: at | |
winace
smiles4smart
CammyWhite
ajanni
TRENDING GISTS 
Banner Calling Out "Home Wrecker" With Her Face & Work Place Display On Plastered By A Roadside
How Bandits Storm Kaduna Community In Fresh Attack, Killed 23 Persons
Mother Who Admitted Smothering Her 2month Old Baby To Death With Pillow While High On Meth Is Found Not Guilty
I Wish They'll Bring Back Those Days When Men Will Go To War And Never Return - Woman Blows Hot
Controversial Singer, Portable Celebrates Wife, Bewaji On Her Birthday, Shares Lovely Photos
VID: Tiktoker Nickie DaBarbie Accuses Singer, Skiibi Of Attempting To Use Her For Ritual
Is It Normal For A Man To Wash His Partner's Pant? - Actor Adeniyi Johnson Asks