Stoning and Lashing in the UAE

The UAE Federal Supreme Court this week upheld the earlier ruling of the Federal Sharia Court of First Instance in Ajman, to hand down the death sentence by stoning to a Pakistani man found guilty of having unlawful sexual relations with his four stepdaughters.

The Gulf News report said that a police officer had remarked that this was the first time that somebody had been sentenced to death by stoning.

The man who is in his 50s admitted his guilt at all stages of the court process.

The four women were sentenced to 80 lashes each for ‘allowing’ their stepfather to have sex with them. They reportedly gave birth to 11 children by their stepfather.

These women, who are now aged between twenty-one and twenty-six, told the judge their stepfather had threatened them with a knife as he forced them to surrender to him.

The report did not indicate how the charge of ‘allowing’ the stepfather to have sex with them, squared with their statement of being forced to comply to his advances, at the threat of a knife.

The punishment decreed by the court has already been carried on the women.

The mother of the young women (who was formerly married to an Emirati man who died twelve years ago) has been accused of aiding and abetting her husband but is yet to be sentenced.

The full report is online at: Bassma Al Jandaly, ‘Court upholds Stoning Penalty Against Man’, Gulf News, 13 April 2007.

Geoff Pound