A Maldivian court has overturned a public flogging sentence for a 15-year-old rape victim whose conviction sparked international outrage and focused attention on the holiday isle’s treatment of women.
The High Court issued a statement on Wednesday saying the girl, whose step-father is on trial for raping her, had been wrongly convicted by a juvenile court of having pre-marital sex with another man.
The court said the sentence was handed down based on a confession that the child made while she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, adding she had been “unfit for trial.”
The Maldivian government appealed on behalf of the teenager following an international outcry over the February sentence to punish her with 100 lashes when she reached the age of 18.
The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was charged after police investigating a complaint that she was raped by her step-father found that she had also been having consensual sex with another man.
Premarital sex is illegal in the Maldives, a popular honeymoon destination in the Indian Ocean, which observes elements of Islamic Sharia law as well as English common law.
Maldivian President Mohamed Waheed was “overjoyed” with the High Court decision, his spokesman told AFP on Thursday.
“It is the government’s policy to protect victims, but we had to do it within the framework of the law,” spokesman Masood Imad said.
Imad said the girl would remain in state care, adding that government authorities had done everything they could to ensure she received proper care and protection.
He also lashed out at the international outcry over the case, saying the government had been unfairly targeted.
“Since the new government came to power (in February 2012), not a single flogging has been carried out in this country,” Imad said.
“We have been unfairly treated over this issue. Some have called for a boycott of the Maldives. There are so many horrible rapes in India, but they don’t say boycott the Indian economy. We are doing everything within the law to ensure that women and children are protected.”
The London-based rights group Amnesty International, which campaigned to spare the victim, said she should never have been put on trial in the first place.
In March, the New York-based campaign group avaaz.org collected over two million signatures for a petition calling on Waheed to intervene and appeal against the conviction.
The child’s step-father faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of rape and a separate charge of murder, after he allegedly killed a baby which resulted from his alleged rape of his step-daughter.
The UN as well as international rights groups have repeatedly asked the Maldives to end the “barbaric practice” of flogging women.
Tourists and locals are usually kept apart in the Maldives, with the expensive holiday resorts favoured by the rich and famous subject to different rules to the rest of the country.
In September a court in the Maldives ordered the public flogging of a 16-year-old who confessed to premarital sex. Her lover was jailed for 10 years.
