High Court on Thursday maintained the 11-year prison sentence of a man convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl.
The perpetrator was found guilty by the Thinadhoo Magistrate Court, over sexually assaulting the minor, on an island in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll in 2016. Aside from that he hailed from a northern atoll, authorities did not disclose any details on the man's identity to protect the victim's personal information.
During the verdict hearing of his appeal trial, the High Court noted that the victim's testimony of her assault was consistent with both the forensic and doctor's reports. The victim had detailed her assault to the police during their investigation, and doctors had confirmed that her injuries were from sexual assault.
Furthermore, the verdict highlighted that the plaintiff had submitted text message exchanges, phone call records, and Messenger chat logs with her assailant as evidence, and that there were no grounds to claim her accusations were false.
The appellate court went on to note that any sufficiently incriminating evidence would suffice to convict perpetrators of child sexual abuse, even if the amount of evidence falls short of the number specified in the law.
Hence, the judges' bench, comprising of presiding Judge Shuaib Hussain Zakariyya, Judge Hussain Shaheed and Judge Mohamed Niyaz, unanimously ruled to uphold the man's 11-year prison sentence.
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