Dubai pardons woman jailed after rape claim
Source: Agencies |
July 23, 2013, Tuesday
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A Norwegian woman in a rape case in Dubai said she was pardoned yesterday of an extramarital sex charge in the Muslim emirate and allowed to fly home, ending a four-month ordeal.
"I was told that I've been pardoned," a smiling Marte Dalelv, 24, told reporters outside a Scandinavian social center, adding her passport had been returned and she would leave the United Arab Emirates "as soon as possible."
"I'm very, very happy. This is the perfect ending (and) it feels really, really good," said Dalelv, dressed in a white shirt and a mid-length skirt.
In Oslo, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide also said Dalelv was being allowed to leave the Gulf state, of which Dubai is a member.
"Marte (Dalelv) is released! Thanks to everyone who signed up to help," the minister wrote on Twitter, adding that she would be returning home soon.
Dalelv had risked 16 months in jail after she reported having been raped by her boss in the UAE. Her boss, who was sentenced to 13 months in prison for alcohol consumption and sex outside marriage, was also pardoned, her lawyer Mahmoud Azab said.
Yesterday, Oslo's envoy in Abu Dhabi, Ase Elin Bjerke, who was accompanying Dalelv, said that "we are very grateful for the outcome of this case. ... It has been very challenging."
She said they have not yet been informed of the reason for the pardon, but "the very fruitful dialogue that we have had at a senior level has given results."
"She has not only been pardoned but she can stay until she decides herself to leave and she is allowed to return to the UAE anytime," said Bjerke.
Dalelv had said she remained hopeful that she would succeed in an appeal against the ruling by a Dubai court that convicted her last week of extramarital sex, perjury and consuming alcohol without a permit.
She reported the rape to police in March and was immediately detained, being released four days later with the assistance of Norwegian diplomats.
The young woman has since been staying at the Norwegian Seamen's Center in Dubai.
News of the sentence had dominated the front pages in Norway and raised questions about the judicial system in the Gulf state, which attracts large numbers of expatriates and tourists with a Western lifestyle but has conservative laws covering sex and alcohol.
Eide has said it was "very strange that a person who reports rape is sentenced for acts which in our part of the world is not even a crime."
Dalelv's appeals hearing was to have taken place on September 5, before she was called to appear at the public prosecutor's office and informed of the pardon yesterday.
Her boss, a Sudanese identified as Hawari in his 30s, "was also handed back his passport" and freed, Azab said.
"I was told that I've been pardoned," a smiling Marte Dalelv, 24, told reporters outside a Scandinavian social center, adding her passport had been returned and she would leave the United Arab Emirates "as soon as possible."
"I'm very, very happy. This is the perfect ending (and) it feels really, really good," said Dalelv, dressed in a white shirt and a mid-length skirt.
In Oslo, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide also said Dalelv was being allowed to leave the Gulf state, of which Dubai is a member.
"Marte (Dalelv) is released! Thanks to everyone who signed up to help," the minister wrote on Twitter, adding that she would be returning home soon.
Dalelv had risked 16 months in jail after she reported having been raped by her boss in the UAE. Her boss, who was sentenced to 13 months in prison for alcohol consumption and sex outside marriage, was also pardoned, her lawyer Mahmoud Azab said.
Yesterday, Oslo's envoy in Abu Dhabi, Ase Elin Bjerke, who was accompanying Dalelv, said that "we are very grateful for the outcome of this case. ... It has been very challenging."
She said they have not yet been informed of the reason for the pardon, but "the very fruitful dialogue that we have had at a senior level has given results."
"She has not only been pardoned but she can stay until she decides herself to leave and she is allowed to return to the UAE anytime," said Bjerke.
Dalelv had said she remained hopeful that she would succeed in an appeal against the ruling by a Dubai court that convicted her last week of extramarital sex, perjury and consuming alcohol without a permit.
She reported the rape to police in March and was immediately detained, being released four days later with the assistance of Norwegian diplomats.
The young woman has since been staying at the Norwegian Seamen's Center in Dubai.
News of the sentence had dominated the front pages in Norway and raised questions about the judicial system in the Gulf state, which attracts large numbers of expatriates and tourists with a Western lifestyle but has conservative laws covering sex and alcohol.
Eide has said it was "very strange that a person who reports rape is sentenced for acts which in our part of the world is not even a crime."
Dalelv's appeals hearing was to have taken place on September 5, before she was called to appear at the public prosecutor's office and informed of the pardon yesterday.
Her boss, a Sudanese identified as Hawari in his 30s, "was also handed back his passport" and freed, Azab said.
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