A fake rape victim in Somalia will now serve a one year jail after she was found to have given a false account of the incident.
The Citizen
By Koome Kimonye
Friday, February 08, 2013
The woman is said to have accused Somalia's security forces of raping her.
Judge Ahmed Aden Farah sentenced her to one year imprisonment for making false accusations and insulting a government body.
The journalist who interviewed her about the alleged rape, but failed to report the story, was also found guilty by the same Judge.
The Judge said the woman would not go to jail immediately as she is caring for a young child.
BBC’s correspondent to Mogadishu said that there has been an angry reaction to the case.
“She will spend one year in prison after finishing the breastfeeding of her baby,” Judge Farah said.
BBC's Mohamed Mwalimu in Mogadishu said that many human rights groups and journalists say the case is politically motivated.
Judge Farah said the court had based its decision on medical evidence that the woman was not raped.
The woman had reported the alleged rape at a police station in Hodan, a district in Mogadishu where many displaced people live.
"We sentence her for offending state institutions by claiming she was raped," AFP news agency quoted the Judge as saying.
"She will spend one year in prison after finishing the breastfeeding of her baby."
Charges against the woman's husband and two others, who allegedly helped introduce her to the journalist, were however dropped.
The journalist, Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim, has been in detention since 10 January - two days after his interview with the woman.
The police alleged he collected material for a news report by Al Jazeera about rape in camps for displaced people in Mogadishu.
The Qatar-based news network has said Ibrahim was not involved in its story.
The prosecutors also alleged that the woman and her accomplices had been paid by the journalist to lie.