Google – AFP, 22 March 2013
 |
Maldive
President Mohamed Waheed speaks at the United Nations General
Assembly on
September 27, 2012 in New York (AFP/File, Stan Honda)
|
COLOMBO —
More than half a million people have signed an online petition condemning the
Maldives over the sentencing of a 15-year-old rape victim to 100 lashes for
pre-marital sex with another man.
The
petition, started two days ago by New York-based campaign group avaarz.org,
calls on Maldives President Mohamed Waheed to intervene and had been signed by
650,000 users on Friday afternoon.
"Let's
build a million-strong petition... then threaten the islands' reputation
through hard-hitting ads in travel magazines and online until he steps in to
save her and abolish this outrageous law," Avaaz said on its website.
Last month
the unidentified Maldivian girl was sentenced to a public flogging after police
investigating a complaint that she was raped by her stepfather found that she
had also been having consensual sex with another man.
President
Waheed had expressed shock and asked the state attorney general to appeal the
conviction amid an international outcry and condemnation from rights groups
such as Amnesty International.
Under law
in the Maldives, a low-lying archipelago of coral-fringed islands populated by
330,000 Sunni Muslims, the flogging will be carried out when the girl reaches
the age of 18.
Premarital
sex is illegal in the popular honeymoon destination, which observes elements of
Islamic Sharia law as well as English common law. The fornication law is not
known to have been applied to foreign tourists.
The child's
stepfather is accused of rape and the murder of a baby born to his stepdaughter
as a result. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
In
September, a court in the Maldives ordered the public flogging of a 16-year-old
who confessed to premarital sex. Her lover was jailed for 10 years.
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