A RECENT GDN report about a university student given a one-year suspended jail sentence for raping a female colleague raised more than a few eyebrows, but unfortunately this is hardly anything new. Looking through the newspaper archives, I found many similar cases which really made me wonder.
Two child rapists had their sentences reduced on appeal, one from 10 to three years and another from three to just one. Last year, a 26-year-old Bahraini was sentenced to three months for tying up, beating and torturing his Asian employee with electric shocks, but a BD300 fine got him a suspended sentence.

But by far the most bizarre judgment I came across was in a February 2003 GDN report on a suspected rapist, who went free after he agreed to marry his 13-year-old victim. The crime was committed when she was just seven. Meanwhile, prostitutes regularly get one year in jail, sometimes even two and so do embezzlers and bribery culprits. Call me old-fashioned, but I consider rape, kidnapping and torture to be more serious crimes than prostitution, bribery and theft, don't you? Lawyers tell me that light sentences are sometimes passed when there isn't enough evidence to throw the full weight of the law at an offender. But surely, when the evidence is so flimsy that such ridiculously lenient judgments are passed, the suspects should just be set free because chances are they're innocent anyway.

The pedophile marriage case is particularly interesting; an experienced lawyer told me that the reason that this sort of thing can happen in Bahrain may be because of laws which were in effect in Egypt around 25 years ago. Bahraini criminal law is based on two major sources, Shari'a law and old Egyptian legislation, which itself is based on French law. If a man had trouble finding a wife, all he had to do was find the prettiest girl in the village and rape her. If she agreed to marry him in court, then he could theoretically get away with it. Apparently this archaic Egyptian law, which has probably long since been erased from law books in that country, was in place to cover up and prevent 'shame'. So these sentences are not always the fault of judges, because their hands are tied by laws, no matter how stupid they may be. Legislators are supposed to fix these things but that's not going to happen at the rate they're going.

Certain laws in Bahrain, such as those covering banking, are very up-to-date but others seem destined to be stuck in the dark ages until MPs stop bleating about non-issues like segregating universities and banning concerts. The legislative process actually moved much, much faster before the elected parliament was established. The above examples fall under criminal legislation, but many laws governing business, inheritance, divorce and so on are just as out of touch with reality. People may now have 'the vote', for what it's worth, but this is little comfort for people who are being victimized as we speak because amateur politicians want to posture or impose out-dated notions of morality. Many laws which are still being enforced were meant for a different time and place. There is a lot of work to be done to update them and talk is cheap.

tariqk1976@hotmail.com 

tkhonji@yahoo.com

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