Thursday, December 13, 2007

Dubai Court Sentences Two Men in Gay Rape

A Dubai court sentenced two men on Wednesday to 15 years in prison 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, Alexandre Robert, 15, first reported that he had been gang-raped by three men in July, the authorities discouraged him from pressing charges and raised the possibility of charging him with criminal homosexual activity, his family said. 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 earlier.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty against the two adult attackers.(
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