Dubai Court Sentences Two in Rape

From the New York Times - December 13, 2007

Dubai Court Sentences Two in Rape

By THANASSIS CAMBANIS

A Dubai court sentenced two men to 15 years in prison on Wednesday for the rape of a French-Swiss teenager, whose case became a rallying point for critics of the way the United Arab Emirates treats victims of sexual assault.

When the teenager, 15-year-old Alexandre Robert, first reported that he had been gang-raped by three men in July, the authorities not only discouraged him from pressing charges, they raised the possibility of charging him with criminal homosexual activity. And Dubai authorities did not tell the victim's family for more than a month after the attack that one of the assailants had tested positive for H.I.V. while in prison four years earlier.

After the attack, the boy fled Dubai, where he was in high school, for a Swiss boarding school. But he returned to testify in the trial last month, and his mother, Véronique Robert, was in court Wednesday to hear the sentence of the two adult assailants. The third suspect is a minor and is being tried separately in a juvenile court.

Ms. Robert said that she wanted the H.I.V.-positive assailant to receive a life sentence, but that she and her son were pleased that Dubai authorities had prosecuted the attackers and had agreed to improve their treatment of victims of sexual assault.

"Alex wasn't happy about the sentence, but on the other hand he's thrilled that authorities in Dubai have agreed to establish a center for victims of sexual assault, so that others won't have to go through the same experience he did," Ms. Robert said by telephone from Dubai.

She has launched an aggressive public campaign against the leadership of Dubai, saying that its unfair treatment of rape victims, and taboos surrounding homosexuality and H.I.V., contradict the ultra-wealthy city's image as a modern business center. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty against the two adult attackers. Mr. Robert's lawyer told reporters he would appeal the sentence handed down Wednesday, asking a higher court to impose longer prison terms.

The police and prosecutors in Dubai have defended their handling of the case, but a government spokesman, Habib al-Mullah, told reporters in Dubai on Wednesday that the emirate was open to improving the justice system's approach to cases of sexual assault.

"Today's verdict has proven that the system is efficient and is fair to all parties involved," he said.