Dubai: A Dubai court today sentenced two men from the United Arab Emirates to 15 years in jail for raping a French-Swiss boy. The prosecution said it would appeal against the sentence, which the victim's mother considered too lenient. The trial of the two UAE nationals, aged 18 and 36, opened on October 24. The older of the two defendants is HIV positive, according to legal sources.

"Fifteen years is nothing for someone who knew he had AIDS," the mother, Veronique Robert, told AFP after the verdict. "I respect their justice system and I have no other comment to make before speaking to my lawyer." A juvenile court in Dubai is trying a third suspect in the same case. His trial is due to resume on December 25.
Defence lawyers had claimed the 15-year-old European had consented to sex and that he had lied to the authorities. The sex act was "in consent and not forced" on the teenager, they said.

On November 18,the Dubai public prosecutor s office demanded the maximum penalty for the two adults, one of whom said he was drunk at the time. Under UAE penal code, the maximum penalty for rape could have meant a death sentence.

Robert publicised her son's case through a website she launched in October to muster support for her demand that the UAE recognise homosexual rape in its legal system and set up adequate bodies to treat AIDS victims. The case has been widely reported in Western media, some of which have seen it as harmful to the image of Dubai, a bustling leisure and business hub in the oil-rich Gulf region.

Source : PTI