unjust – ThursdayAgain

In the holiday paradise of the Maldive Islands (well OK I like it) a 15-year-old rape victim has been sentenced to 100 lashes for engaging in premarital sex, local court officials confirmed earlier this week.

The charges against the girl were brought against her last year after police investigated accusations that her stepfather had raped her & killed their baby. He is still, possibly, to face trial. (I guess justice moves faster for women in the Maldives)

The government said it did not agree with the punishment & said it would look into changing the law (which means it plans to do nothing, just like on previous occasions when it said the same thing).

Zaima Nasheed, a spokesperson for the Maldive’s juvenile court (& no doubt a wonderful human being in her “off duty” hours), said the girl was also ordered to remain under house arrest at a children’s home for eight months.

She defended the sentence, saying the girl had “willingly committed an act outside of the law” (you just have to love the certainty of the devout – whether Christian, Hindu or Moslem).

Officials said she would receive the punishment when she turns 18, unless she “requested it earlier”.

The case was sent for prosecution after police were called to investigate a dead baby buried on the island of Feydhoo in the Shaviyani atoll, in the north of the country.

Her stepfather was initially accused of raping her, impregnating her & killing the resulting baby. The girl’s mother also faces charges for failing to report the abuse to the authorities.

File this story under “Why I am a feminist” (& for this one your gender really doesn’t matter).

The official photograph of the current Head of the Maldive's Juvenile Court. — The official photograph of the current Head of the Maldive’s Juvenile Court.

A judge in Russia has resigned after a video showed him asleep during a trial that ended with him sentencing the defendant to 5 years, local media reported at the end of last week.

The Russian justice system, which has an “enviously” high conviction rate, managed to piss-off even its most stalwart supporters when the video, showing judge Yevgeny Makhno sleeping through a defense lawyer’s speech, was posted online.

“The Judges Qualification Panel accepted Makhno’s resignation from his judge’s post,” regional judge & panel member Valentina Pozharskaya told reporters.

The video, which was recorded during a fraud trial last year, shows Makhno slumped at the bench & fast asleep with his head leaning back on his chair.

The accused was sentenced to five years hard labor & will now have a new trial on 14th February (hope the new judge is romantic, as well as awake) after a successful appeal against the “unjust” sentence, local TV news reports said.

Makhno will eventually be able to return to his post if he retakes his exams, & presumably can develop a taste for strong coffee & lose any predilection for lunchtime vodka.

No doubt the “Pres” will soon be videoed wrestling slumbering judges from their Courts, while dressed only in a loin cloth & a rather fetching legal wig. So that just leaves the Pussy Riot girls……