kalikshama
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Norwegian convicted over rape report issues Gulf caution
The Norwegian interior designer convicted in Dubai of having illegal sex after she reported being raped is appealing her jail sentence and alerting Western women to the Islam-based legal system of the United Arab Emirates.
"I just want to get fair treatment," Marte Deborah Dalelv, 24, told the AFP news agency Friday. She called her 16-month sentence Tuesday — for extramarital sex, perjury and illegal alcohol consumption — "very harsh," saying she had appealed immediately. A hearing is set for Sept. 5.
Since the Norwegian government secured Dalelv's conditional release after she was charged in March, she has been living under the protection of the Norwegian Seamens' Center, a church in Dubai. But now that she has been sentenced, she told Norway's NRK News that she is officially wanted by the authorities, the BBC reported.
"I should have been imprisoned since Tuesday," she said. "But I have been told they are not searching for me."
STORY: Dubai imprisons Norwegian woman who reported rape
She told AFP she was "very nervous and tense."
"I hope for the best, and I take one day at a time," she said by telephone. "I just have to get through this."
Nonetheless, Dalelv stressed she did not want to criticize the UAE government.
"They have their legal system," she said.
Under United Arab Emirates law, sex outside of marriage is illegal, and a rape conviction requires either a confession or four adult male witnesses to the attack. Similar convictions involving foreigners and Emirati women have occurred over the past several years, although the law on extramarital sex is not generally enforced for tourists or several hundred thousand Westerners and others living there on resident visas.
Dalelv Facebook
Marte Dalelv was sentenced to 16 months in jail for extramarital sex, perjury and consuming alcohol without a license. She was charged after reporting in March that a co-worker had raped her in a Dubai hotel where she was attending a business conference.(Photo: Facebook via AFP/Getty Images)
In an interview with the Associated Press, Dalelv said she wanted to "spread the word" about significant differences in the emirates' legal code compared with Western legal systems.
"After my sentence we thought, 'How can it get worse?'" she said from the church. She has been in regular contact with her family, who live outside of Oslo.
Explaining the March 6 attack at a hotel where she was attending a business conference, Dalelv said she awoke to find a co-worker raping her. She fled to the lobby to report the assault, and said the staff questioned whether she wanted to involve the police.
After questioning and a medical examination, she wound up being jailed for four days, charged and having her passport confiscated.
Dalelv said her attacker was sentenced to 13 months for extramarital sex and consuming alcohol without a license.
She also revealed that she was suspended by Qatar-based home-furnishings company The One after her arrest, according to media in Norway, where her case has dominated the news and sparked outrage.
She told NRK that her suspension letter cited "gross misconduct on the job in direct violation of the company's policy" and the firm wants to fire her.
Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/07/19/dubai-norwegian-rape-jailed-extramarital-sex/2569977/
Thanks to popeye1250 for pointing out this article in his thread.
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Curious about the "Sluts Vote" avatars? See http://www.collarchat.com/m_4133036/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm#4133036
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