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6. Strange and Mysterious:
Rape of a Disabled Girl
On 17.4.2000, the local Palestinian
community was shocked by the following report published in al-Quds daily
newspaper:
A married man in
the fifties raped a disabled girl
A girl and her
mother entered yesterday the house of Hatem Abdel-Qader, member of the
Legislative Council, asking for help and protection. She expressed her
fears that the man who – as the woman claimed - raped her 15 year old
disabled daughter would escape punishment.
The girl’s mother
said that last Monday a private car stopped her daughter on her way home
from school. The driver was a man in his fifties married with children
and asked her to go with him and offered her some candies. The man took
the girl, whom the doctors estimate has a mental age of 7 years, to a
deserted house that he owned, raped her, and left her outside.
The girl recognized
the neighborhood and was able to return home in a very bad condition.
The mother could not then understand the reason for the delay of two
hours of her daughter, because the girl did not realize what had
happened to her.
The girl’s mother
noticed that there was blood on the clothes of her daughter, so she took
her the following day to a female doctor who informed her that her
daughter had been raped, and lost her virginity.
A medical examiner
also checked the girl and confirmed that the crime has taken place. The
girl managed to identify the house and the aggressor, and the police
have arrested him.
Member of the
Legislative Council Hatem Abdel-Qader expressed his disgust at the
crime, and confirmed that the aggressor would be brought before court.
He claimed that “they” were investigating the mother’s claim that her
daughter was under threat, he added that the mother and daughter would
be protected, and medical and psychological support provided to them.
Abdel-Qader refused
to reveal the identity of the victim, but said all details would be
presented to President Arafat so that justice will take place. He added
that the Legislative Council and Fateh movement will follow legal
procedures in this case.
Many humanitarian
and social organizations have expressed their condemnation to this
horrible crime, and demanded all parties concerned to bring down maximum
punishment against the aggressor.
This heinous crime, inflicted on a mentally
and psychologically handicapped girl brought forth a wide range of
protests and cries of outrage from women’s organizations and associations
of the disabled.
The Mufti of Palestine, Sheikh Ikirmeh Sabri, told
al-Quds newspaper on 18.4.2000 that the religion of Islam came to organize
relationships between man and God, between human beings, and between man
and his inner self. He stated that Islam maintained and protected people
and the lives of all individuals in the community.
General Union of the Disabled considered
what has happened a crime committed with intention that contradicted all
human principles and morals respected by local and international
societies.
Jihad Abu-Zneid from the Women’s Center in
Shu’fat east of Jerusalem said that the circumstances we face in the local
community ring a bell to warn us that there are serious strange social
phenomena in our society.
On 23.4.2000 organizations and institutions
from Am’ari camp marched in protest against the rape of the disabled girl,
demanding that all disabled people be protected. A similar demonstration
was organizaed by the General Union of the Disabled in Ramallah.
As a result of these statements of public
outrage, President Arafat ordered that the case be referred to and dealt
with by the State Security Court in Ramallah where the aggressor would be
tried. The suspect was then referred to the State General Prosecutor for
interrogation in preparation for trial.
From a legal point of view:
·
Such cases must be dealt with
in the Criminal Court and the suspect guaranteed a fair trial. Trying such
cases before State security Courts violates the guarantees of a civil
judiciary, under Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights as well as the spirit and letter of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
·
Public pressure and mass
outrage against the crime must not be allowed to influence the legal
process, in either its decisions or in sentencing. The horror of a
particular crime must not lead to violations of the rule of law or the
independence of the judiciary. Human rights organizations demand that the
primacy of law and the independence of the judiciary in Palestine be
recognized and strengthened and that legal decisions be free of outside
pressure and influence.
1.
“A suspect is innocent until he is convicted in a fair and just
trial” The suspect in this case must be considered innocent until he is
convicted in a fair trial before a civil court. The media must be accurate
and precise in the words and terminology used in such cases. The suspect
has not been convicted yet, and he has the right to defend himself.
·
Criminal law # 16 of 1960
article 293 states under Crimes of Honor (Anyone who has sex with a female
(except his wife) who can not resist because of physical or psychological
disability or a trick played on her, will be punished by temporary labor
imprisonment).
·
The Palestinian Law of the
Disabled, which was approved by the President stated in article 9: the
state will establish rules and controls to guarantee protection for the
disabled against all forms of violence, blackmail and discrimination.
Description of what had happened
The PHRMG visited the house of the disabled
girl (the victim) on 30.4.00 and met her mother who said:
( My daughter is 17 years old, but doctors
estimate her mental ability as that of 6-7 years old. She attends the
Swedish school for disabled in Beit Hanina. On 3.4.00 she was late coming
back home (she normally returns at about 2 p.m.) although she knows the
way very well. I informed her father who asked his brother to look around
for her, and at the end found her on the way up towards the house in very
bad condition. We asked her why she was late and where had she gone but
she did not answer. She had a very red face, was very nervous, and told
her sister that she had her period. Her sister, whom she trusts, asked her
to wash, and there was blood on her underwear. Her sister tried to know
what happened with her but she did not say, and her sister found some
money in her bag. She stayed in bed covering her head.
The following day I took her to a
Gynecologist female doctor in Ramallah, called Iftikhar (later we
discovered that her real name was Emilia), she examined the girl and
confirmed that she was savagely raped, and the doctor so testified that
before the court. The doctor recommended that I take her to a medical
examiner to make sure that there was no mistake, and to report the
accident to the police. I went to the police in Ramallah and told them
what has happened, then to the medical examiner in Bethlehem, who
confirmed the crime, and said he would send the report to the police in
Ramallah, and he did. )
The disabled girl, the victim, told the PHRMG:
( The man took me by my hand into his car
and said he would give me some money and chocolate. He took me to an
apartment and opened the door, then into the bed room. He told me to lay
down on the bed, so I did, and told me to take off my clothes, and so he
did, and started to do it with me. He put some oil on himself and kissed
me on my mouth and said nice words to me like “darling”. After he
finished, he told me to wash up and took me outside the house, gave me
some money and told me to return home )
She gave the following description of the
man ‘the aggressor’:
( He was short and fat, with white hair, old
in age, had dark green trousers and a pink shirt )
She added: ( I hate that man because he was
bad. When I came back home I was very afraid. I washed my mouth several
times because he kissed me. I went out with two other men before him, but
they did not do anything with me ).
Note: Affidavit of the girl was not very
clear, but she chose some answers offered to her, and said few words
during the interview.
Reaction of her father:
Her mother said: ( Her father was shocked
and did not eat or drink for some time. He told me to take her to a female
doctor to check her, he also told me to ask the girl if she could
recognize the house. So we went out in my husband’s car and she told him
where to go, and at last we reached the apartment and she pointed to it.
So we informed the police, and the girl took the police to the flat where
the crime happened )
The victim after the accident:
( Following the accident, My daughter became
sick, and she remained in bed for a whole week, always covering her head
with a blanket, and she became nervous and unbalanced, and refused to
speak with anyone about the accident ) Her mother said, and added:
( The girl did not realize what happened to
her, and could not describe the accident very well ).
What did the family of the suspect
aggressor (Abu-Nabil al-Hindy) say?
Testimony
of the wife of the suspect (Abu-Nabil al-Hindy) who was charged with
raping a 17 year old disabled girl / as given on 30.4.00:
On Monday 5.4.2000, one man came
to our house, knocked on the door, and asked for our son Akram, who owns a
flat in Um al-Sharayet area, near Ramallah. This man told Akram
that the Palestinian Intelligence service wanted to see him, so he went
with his father. They did not say it was about rape, but said it was about
stones thrown from his apartment.
When a line of men stood before the girl she pointed to Abu-Nabil, who
said that he never saw her before, but the police kept him for one night,
then let him go home and told him to come back on Saturday. They ran a
check on him, and on the girl who said there were two more men, and she
gave their descriptions.
My husband told them that he
was impotent (sexual inability), and I knew that myself. And so after
conducting the checks, the general prosecutor said that my husband was
innocent and he would be released soon. He called his son and told him the
good news, but immediately everything changed. A decision came saying that
my husband had to stay in prison, it seemed that there was someone higher
up who did not want Abu-Nabil to be released.
We do not have a defense lawyer
now. Every time we had one, he would leave the case; first we had Advocate
Nabil Mushahwer, and when we asked him he said that he dropped the case
because he does not appear before the State Security Court, and that was
his principle. Then we had the lawyer Abeer Shweiki, who left the case
within a week. The victim has her lawyer, but we do not.
How and why did they call it a
state security case? My husband is innocent, and the medical checks proved
his impotency, and moreover, they prevented any lawyer, or human rights
organizations from visiting him. At present he is in the district
headquarters (Muqata’a) in Ramallah, and we visit him every week. Whenever
we visit him he says that there is no evidence against him but some senior
officials want him in jail (for their own personal interests - revenge).
When asked about the location of Abu-Nabil (the
suspect) at the time of the crime (about 2 p.m.), she replied that he went
to collect his children from school and the teachers saw him there, and
came back home at around 2 p.m., stayed until 3, then went to see a
contractor about some business, and this contractor is ready to testify to
that.
One of the suspect’s daughters said to the
PHRMG:
They claim that my father did
“that” in my brother’s apartment, but my brother is preparing for his
marriage, and he is the only person who has keys for his apartment.
Moreover, the girl confessed
that some men sexually abused her some time ago (40 days ago or so). I can
not believe that my father would do such a thing. The disabled girl said
that the man had green trousers and a white shirt, but on that day my
father had gray trousers and a blue shirt, she also said that the door of
the apartment was green, but in fact it is gold. I think that the girl’s
mother has information but she doesn’t want to tell everything. I believe
there were other people involved. There are many questions that need
answers: For example, how come no neighbors saw the girl enter and leave
the apartment? Why did they (the police) wait three days before doing the
medical checks? What is the evidence against the suspect? And, if the girl
is mentally disturbed, how can she identify a person, and how can we trust
her (she looked puzzled and uncertain in the interview with al-Quds
educational TV)!?
We demand that the truth be
revealed, and to refer the case to a civil court.
The Oldest son of Abu-Nabil told the PHRMG:
( We have many problems with many people,
but my father is innocent. No one could enter that apartment, and there
were workers all the time there. I sent a friend to try and speak with the
girl’s family, but they claimed that we were trying to solve the problem
by getting my father to marry the girl, and that did not happen. Moreover,
one of my daughters who is 10 years old said she saw a BMW car near our
house, and the woman inside the car, with glasses, told her to say to me
to leave the case and not intervene. We demand that they carry out medical
checks on my father, because we are sure they will discover that my father
is innocent )
Wife of the suspect (Abu-Nabil) added:
( He is now in Ramallah hospital as a result
of a heart clot that he had, we have medical records that prove he had
health problems, namely in his prostate gland ).
Civil Criminal Court has
the Jurisdiction:
As a result of pressure exerted by organizations and
institutions, the case was referred to the civil Criminal Court, from the
State Security Court, which has the jurisdiction in such cases.
Reactions:
* Jerusalem Educational Television – Maher
Dasouqi hosted some local figures in his program (Space for Opinion) on
the case of the rape of the disabled girl. During the discussion which
lasted for 90 minutes, many points were raised regarding this case, such
as:
- The Palestinian Criminal Law needs to be
more detailed and more particular in such crimes.
- Palestinian families have to be more aware
of problems and difficulties that face their children.
- There was some evidence against the
suspect, and the case received great coverage in the media, this is why it
was referred to the State Security Court in the first place.
The story of the rape of
the disabled girl received wide coverage from the media, but has not been
resolved until now. The suspect (Abu-Nabil al-Hindy) remains in Ramallah
hospital, and no one until this moment really knows the exact details of
the story, and the truth remains silent.
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