Very concering news articles...
Please read these 2 news items from today’s Gulf Times and I would appeal to anyone to explain to me why this such a disparity in the sentences of these 2 people. This is exactly the type of thing that unfortunately bring Qatar into such disrepute in terms of its laws
"Teenager gets jail for kidnap bid
A local teenager was sentenced by a Doha court of first instance to three years’ imprisonment for attempting to kidnap an Arab teenager to sexually abuse her.
The appeals court reduced the jail penalty to one year and suspended it considering the age of the accused and his clean record.
Another Qatari man (now 21) was acquitted of the charges.
The incident took place near the Al Khor medical centre around midnight on October 25, 2009.
According to the chargesheet, “the victim (then 18) left the hospital along with her sister (then 21) and was walking to the parking yard when a speeding Land Cruiser carrying three locals approached them.”
The chargesheet said: “A teenager jumped out of the moving Land Cruiser and ran after the two women. He tried to drag the girl into the vehicle.”
Two of the medical centre staff (a local security man and a Sudanese cashier) saw the incident and they rushed to help the Omani girl and her sister. The police were involved and the case landed in the court.
The 19-year-old convict denied the charges but he was convicted based on the testimony of the witnesses and the plaintiff.
The court cleared the driver of the car for lack of evidence."
AND
"Theft bid lands worker in jail
A Sri Lankan worker was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for attempting to steal items from the store where he worked in January last year.
The Doha court of first instance heard that the 22-year-old was stopped by a security man while trying to carry boxes (of pens) out of the shop in the Industrial Area.
The accused told the police that the company used to “throw away” the pens and that he told the security man about his intention to “take” them.
The executive manager of the company said that the new pens were worth QR400.
The security man said that the accused looked confused when he was asked to show a bag that he held.
The Sri Lankan has to leave the country after serving the three-month imprisonment term, the court ruled."
Hacking of male members in public would violate modesty laws :-)
the girls were on the way to steal pens, lucky the guys in the landcruiser came along.
Well, hack off their willies in public then....like ChoChop square in Saudi.(they hack off hands and heads...don't know about willies)
I agree with jjj75. Justice must be public to be effective.
Not only must Justice be done, it must be seen to be done
PreZ--if the courts don't offer justice that is the danger, and I would sympathize with the Omani guys.
Well said jjj75. Of course, if the girls were Western, all the naysayers would be suggesting ti was somehow the fault of the girls. If they attackers were Western it would be further evidence of how perverse and sexed-up Western culture was.
..was tempted to say this in my previous post, how about a bunch of Omani guys driving in and kidnapping those guys..natural justice
but then we have digressed from the reason of OP thread
I find it highly interesting that when we have an actual incident for those naysayers to comment on, they are no where to be seen - perhaps a little too close for comfort. I hope they are reassessing their heinous views in light of the fact that if it could happen to these girls it could happen to any of their female relations
Thanks TK. Saw your post after I posted. Definitely sarcasm. Very bitter sarcasm. These guys need to be put in a prison environment where they can be someone else's "girlfriends" for a while and see if that changes their attitudes towards vulnerable people. They need to learn that a gentleman does not take advantage of a lady walking at night. He politely offers for a reputable taxi to take her home.
Thanks PreZ, but I was being sarcastic in light of the lengthy discussion on whether or not women deserve to be raped based on what they wear :-)
For me it does not matter if they were naked (but I am sure as modest ladies they were not). These men had no right to do what they did, and it is an injustice that a bunch of old men judges let them go. Their families must be furious.
to think much. Omani girls dress as conservatively as the locals. Perverts don't need to see much, they have their imagination to make up for it.
Though the way things work, the girls would be blamed for tempting the men, even if the face was covered and just a lock of hair was visible.
"a thong tha thong tha thong"
More important, what exactly was the girl wearing?
PreZ - I was thinking that too
..r u thinking of 'SA'?
Yes, please don’t stop. You’re much more entertaining than you realize.
Do you do any other animals?
Thanks Jameela, I have not laughed in the office today and you provided me with a chuckle - carry on you are incredibly funny
Jameela - what a cogent well thought out argument - no gainsaying you I say! I know when I am beaten by superior reasoning!
I guess if you can’t come up with any meaningful intellectual arguments with someone, you might as well try name calling.
Ouch.
Maybe that person is commenting on this thread after all.
Nobody ever believed those "strong, water-tight, logical arguments" anyway, fubar.
jjj75 - I'm thinking of someone with very outspoken views on rape, and a rather low image of rape victims.
I’m just curious to see what s/he has to say on this issue, considering that the victim was a muslim girl visiting a hospital. Presumably she was wearing an abaya, or if not she was surely dressed modestly and not wearing anything revealing. Which doesn’t really fit in with the picture of a rape victim previously presented – that of a girl doing something to make him think she wanted it.
And then we learn that the perpetrators were locals, and not bad, dirty westerners who have no religion or faith or decency or respect for females, unlike certain other cultures where this sort of thing would never, ever happen. Not in a million years.
And why wouldn’t it happen? Because in those countries, the law takes a very dim view on those who try to rape girls, and punishes them harshly, according to the religious beliefs of that culture. Because surely attempting to kidnap and then rape a girl is such a terrible thing, it would land you in jail for a very, very, very long time.
Except, strangely, that doesn’t seem to have been the case at all. All those strong, water-tight, logical arguments presented to us on the other threads seem to have come crashing down.
jameela, I have nothing to do with the mods and no wonder you are banned, take a look at yourself
.
Who would that be Fubar??
Someone is conspicuously absent from the thread.
Yes LincolnPirate, easy prey!!
Yeah, especially around hospitals, WK. People are normally slow when the come out of HMC. Perfect terrain.
Why aren't they investigating the girl?
What was she doing at the hospital at midnight?
Moving around late night like this will obviously attract rapists.
The case of attempted kidnapping is disturbing to say the least. The guy got off scott free?for attempted kidnapping and sexual abuse? Yikes! This is horrifying and as a mother of a daughter I can't imagine what the poor girl and her parents must feel. Justice this is not!
It is the nation that will have the problem in the long run. Already Human rights organisations have their beady eye on Qatar and this will only become more apparent in the western press in the run up to the 2022 games - this is not a good look for the country, hence my suggesting that things like this ought to be heavily scrutinized if not addressed, because if they don't it will be highlighted all over the global press in the years to come.
sorry Fubar... but that sounded harsh... anyways i do not have a daughter infact am single :)
if you ask me... any conflict with a local will require you take the law in your hands (BD way) or digest the incident like it never happened..... (well mostly)....
...most of us are expatriates, we'll all be going back to our respective countries, which however imperfect, a better rule of law prevails.
These kids will be a burden to their own countries.
By the way, expatriates have no say in the law or anything else, not that any of us are bothered to..
Let it be..
i agree... but any revealing identity not sufficing to the (so called) justice will be put to (so called) justice... before deportation.
if you are on face book ... you will find it interesting to like a page titled doha clubbing authorities... and some incidents posted by clubbers in Doha will be far more shocking.... even more shocking is the fact .. that they laugh about it.
Just ignore it until someone rapes your daughter.
or, worse, steals some of your pens.
EXLegend
but if we all treated this with complacency how will will anything change - treating with complacency sends the message that this is acceptable
...missed that word .. suspended sentence...justice at its best..no wonder the kids grow up thinking they can get away with anything..bodes ill for a good future society
whistle it off... no can do
just the usual
PreZ
the aspiring kidnapper did not even spend any time in jail - after all that his sentence was suspended due to his clean record - but I see despite the other defendent also having a clean record(probably he has as he would not have been allowed in the country in the first place) he was spent 3 months in jail followed by deportation
...if your arguement is about intent, the shop guy was 'trying' to carry away the pens from the shop and had not actually completed his crime, which is the same as the would be kidnapper/rapist 'pulling' the girl to the car.
The case comparison is quite appropriate and not wanting to comment on a judicial decision 'for what it is worth'... and possibly the aspiring kidnapper will be released during the very next general amnesty (happens in the UAE/dunno about Qatar)... vat to do??
as per tradition if someone is convicted for stealing, hands will be cut-off.
what they will do to this kidnappers and rapist, should be worst i supposed...
Et TU !
Welcome to the unjust system of Qatar where you can murder someone pay a mere fine (which is paid by a local charity).
a would be kidnapper and rapist gets 1 year
and a pen thief gets 3 months and deportation
..talk about redemption
I'm just waiting for Straight Arrow to justify it because the Omani girl was probably wearing a revealing headscarf or something.
She will have led him on, or shouldn’t have been walking to her car at midnight, or maybe she looked at him. And the three boys just couldn’t help themselves and had to try and rape her, because even though they are good muslims, they were corrupted by western internet porn and now have no self control and try to rape any female they see.
Will have to conveniently ignore that the local courts decide that if when you try in your first attempt to rape a girl, you get let off because you haven’t raped anyone before.
Okie, the nature of crime is different, what about reducing the three years sentence to one year & then suspending it? Acquittal of two suspects based on lack of (or no) evidence? Statements of the Security peronnel & Cashier were not enough? What if it happens to a local girl?
so Steve1, are you saying that the theft of some pens carries the weight of a more serious sentence than the attempt to kidnap and sexually assault people - and he was ACTUALLY sentenced for attempted kidnapping (not just intent).
Also does not society not only have a right to see someone punished for a crime but also to be protected from those that wish to perpetrate crimes - this individual clearly had intent and should we not be protected against further attempts? And I am sure that I would far rather be protected from someone who wanted to kidnap and sexually assualt than someone who committed petty theft.
So if I intended to, but failed, in my attempt to murder someone, I should get off with a warning?
Ummm one is about attempted kidnapping and the other is about stealing pens....
This is like comparing apples with cashew nuts!
1. the first case is of intent, nothing actually occurred, even though it would appear that there was intent.
2. The worker was actually 'stealing' not one pen but boxes of pens, with a flimsy excuse that the company actually throws its new stock away.
Everyone knows that theft is a real no no in the middle east.
By the way I don't condone the idiots in case 1, but if you are trying to make the case that locals get let off and others don't, then the cases have to be at least similar.