Confusion in court


One of those times when one just stares in helpless gobsmacked fury. Al Jazeera reports via AFP:

A Somali court has sentenced to jail a woman who said she was raped and two journalists who reported her story.

The court passed the verdict on Monday in the capital Mogadishu, saying the journalists were guilty of defamation and insulting state institutions.

The 19-year old woman, who is also a journalist, was handed a suspended six-month jail sentence for defamation and lying, during which time she will be confined to her home, said Judge Hashi Elmi Nur.

The journalists are to serve out their sentences, of one year and six months respectively, or pay a fine in order to win early release.

It is the second time this year Somalia has jailed a woman for speaking out about rape and journalists for interviewing her.

Somalia is a failed state, yet it manages to find time and effort to jail people for “insulting state institutions.”

In February, a Somali journalist and a rape victim he interviewed were both sentenced to a year in prison after being found guilty of “offending state institutions”.

In that case, the court found the woman had lied after a midwife conducted a “finger test” to see if she had been raped, which Human Rights Watch (HRW) said was an “unscientific and degrading practice that has long been discredited”.

A “finger test”!!? That’s not a test, it’s more rape.

 

Comments

  1. Marianne says

    It is horrible, but I’m relieved she didn’t suffer the same fate as Asho aka Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow.

  2. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    These “finger tests” are used in India commonly enough for *me* to be aware of them, and I’ve never set foot in Asia, much less India. I did some research on the prevalence and reasons justifying these tests. Turns out there are quite a few international condemnations of this occurring in India.

    Clearly I should have expanded my research.

    Sigh.

  3. Shatterface says

    Somalia is a failed state, yet it manages to find time and effort to jail people for “insulting state institutions

    It’s more a ‘because’ than a ‘yet’.

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