zondag 4 oktober 2009

The juvenile court

A juvenile court in Iraq (Diyala) has sentenced a 16-year-old girl to approximately eight years in prison.

Rania Ibrahim was arrested in August 2008 because she was believed to be a follower of Al-Qaeda. During the arrest, she wore a long dress with underneath it a suicide belt.
At the age of eleven, she left school. Only five months before her arrest, she was married off. She told the police chief that a relative of her husband told her to wear the vest. She claims that she had no idea of the intentions of that relative who also said that she had to wait for further instructions once she was wearing the vest.
The US military has defined her as an 'unwilling suicide bomber'.
Now, one year later, she was found guilty by the juvenile court in Diyala for seven-and-a-half years in prison for an attempted suicide attack.

I think that we will never know the absolute truth. On one hand, I believe her. A 16-year-old girl is easy to influence, so it could be that a relative of her husband told her to wear the vest. Certainly when she thought she could trust that person. But on the other hand, a suicide belt looks not at all like a normal belt. She should have thought that there was something going on and certainly when he said to her that she had to wait outside for further instructions.
If I had to decide, I would have given that particular relative twelve years to prison and I would have given Rania three-and-a-half years.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8184478.stm


Geen opmerkingen:

Een reactie posten