The Supreme Court has overturned Hisor court’s verdict on the case of the rape of a 12-year-old girl and remitted the case for further inquiry.
On Tuesday January 12, the Supreme Court overturned a sentence passed by a court in the city of Hisor on December 9 on the case of the rape of the 12-year-old girl and remitted the case for further inquiry.
“The Supreme Court overturned the verdict due to the presence of deficiencies and lack of proper reason,” a source within the Supreme Court told Asia-Plus in an interview.
Recall, a court in Hisor on December 9 sentenced a 42-year-old Husniddin Abdulloyev to five years in prison for raping a minor, but immediately amnestied him, allowing him to leave the courtroom a free man.
The defense strongly demanded that the guilty be convicted under the provisions of Article 138 (2) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – rape.
The court, however, issued a verdict under the provisions of Article 141 (1) — sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16 in the absence of signs of crime.
The defense has not agreed with the verdict and appealed to the Supreme Court on December 18.
The verdict has caused violent indignation on social networks. Many social network users have condemned the judge's decision, calling it “indifference to immoral acts against minors.”
Last week, civil rights activists called on President Emomali Rahmon and the parliament to "protect minors from sexual abuse."
Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service says that according to the activists, from January to July last year, 16 cases of sexual assaults against minors were registered in Tajikistan — in one case the victim of such an attack was a three-year-old girl.
The activists say the real number of such cases is much higher.
Recall, the Social-Democratic Party of Tajikistan (SDPT) leader, Rahmatillo Zoyirov, wrote about the Hisor incident on his Facebook page on June 17. SDPT leader noted in his open letter to the Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor-General’s Office that the 12-year-old girl from the Somon jamoat was raped by her 42-year-old neighbor last year.
“The 42-year-old H.A. last year raped the 12-year-old neighbor girl, who is his first cousin, in a cow-shed. Threatening the girl and using her helpless state, he did this several times," Zoyirov wrote.
According to him, when the girl’s parents found out about that, “H.A. by threats kept them from submitting an application [to the law enforcement authorities].”
“When it turned out that the girl is pregnant, the parents went to the prosecutor’s office and police department in Hisor to complain about the rapist neighbor, but they didn’t accept the application. Moreover, covering the rapist, they threatened [the parents] with grave consequences.”
According to Zoyirov, the girl gave birth to the child in April this year, and now there is pressure on the girl and her parents “in order to solve everything peacefully and without consequences.”
SDPT leader asked the Prosecutor-General’s Office and the Interior Ministry to take the case under their control so that the rapist would be punished.
The girl’s uncle told Asia-Plus that Husniddin Abdulloyev has tried to pay them off. “He offered us 10,000 somonis so that we take back our complaint filed in the prosecutor’s office but we refused. Abdulloyev then began to threaten us through his friends,” the man said.
“Since local police station and prosecutor’s office have ignored our applications, we have been forced to apply to the Interior Ministry, the Prosecutor-General’s Office and the public. Only after that, we have been invited to the Interior Ministry Criminal Investigation Directorate to testify,” the girl’s uncle noted.
According to him, the case has been sent for investigation to the Hisor prosecutor’s office and Husniddin Abdulloyev has been taken into custody.
