Man acquitted of 17-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting minors

A man jailed for 17 years for sexually assaulting a minor was acquitted by the Supreme Court yesterday.

The assault case arose in 2020 after a minor accused his teacher of allegedly sexually assaulting him between 2019 and 2020. Additionally, a second incident involved another individual who was accused of sexually assaulting the minor between 2014 and 2015, when the minor was 11 years old.

As a result, both the teacher and the second person were charged. In 2022, the criminal court ruled that the teacher was not guilty, but the second person was convicted. At that time, the court sentenced the second person to 17 years in prison.

After appealing the case, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the minor had first reported the incident about six years after it happened and that there were glaring discrepancies between two statements from the then Ministry of Gender and Family and the police. Because of these inconsistencies, the court considered it incorrect to base the case on the testimony of the minor’s family, which relied on the minor’s testimony.

The lower court also conducted a separate case against the second person for alleged sexual assault of the minor. The court said it could be considered that an attempt was made to acquit one person while convicting the other. The Supreme Court ruling also said that the forensic reports did not provide evidence against the teacher for the earlier incident and it was unclear how the lower court found evidence against the second person.

Justices Mohamed Niyaz and Chief Justice Hussain Shaheed decided to overturn the lower court’s verdict.

However, dissenting judge Hassan Shafiu insisted that the lower court’s ruling was correct. In his view, the minor’s reluctance to report the teacher’s initial assaults was plausible and the lack of physical evidence did not refute the minor’s allegations.

The majority decision of the Supreme Court overturned the lower court’s prison sentence.