A man who had been incarcerated for 17 years for charges of sexual assault of a a minor was acquitted by the High Court yesterday.
A man who had been incarcerated for 17 years for charges of sexual assault of a a minor was acquitted by the High Court yesterday.
The case of the assault emerged in 2020 after a minor accused their teacher of allegedly sexually assaulting them between 2019 and 2020. Additionally, a second incident involved another person alleged of sexual assault on the minor between 2014 and 2015, when the minor was 11 years old.
As a result, both the teacher and the second individual were charged. In 2022, the Criminal Court ruled that the teacher was not guilty, but the second individual was convicted. At the time, the court sentenced the second person to 17 years in prison.
Once the case had been appealed, High Court ruled yesterday that the minor first reported the incident about six years after it had occurred, and there were noticeable discrepancies between two statements taken by the then Ministry of Gender and Family and the police. Due to these inconsistencies, the court found it wrong to base the case on the minor’s family’s testimony, which relied on the minor's statements.
The lower court also held a separate case against the second individual for the alleged sexual assault of the minor. The court said that it may be believed that efforts may have been made to clear one person while convicting the other. The High Court judgment also said that the medico-legal reports did not provide evidence against the teacher for the earlier incident, and it was unclear how the lower court had found evidence against the second individual.
Judges Mohamed Niyaz and Chief Justice Hussain Shaheed ruled to overturn the lower court’s judgment.
However, dissenting Judge Hassan Shafiu maintained that the lower court's judgment was correct. In his view, the minor’s reluctance to report the teacher’s initial assaults was plausible, and the absence of physical evidence did not invalidate the minor’s claims.
High Court's majority ruling quashed the lower court’s prison sentence.
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