The Specialized Criminal Court in Sana’a sentenced a father to 15 years in prison for raping four of his young daughters. The organization “Siyaj,” which provided legal aid to the girls, called on the Yemeni Public Prosecution to appeal the verdict and demand the harshest penalties, given its legal standing. The organization had received a report in March 2009 detailing the heinous crime committed against the young girls and submitted a request to the Attorney General to refer the case to the Specialized Criminal Court. Siyaj urged the Public Prosecution in the Republic of Yemen to expedite the case file and ensure a fair trial for the accused, demanding the death penalty if the atrocious crimes attributed to him are proven. The organization insists that, should the court find the accused guilty, he should be executed as the minimum punishment for such a heinous and dangerous crime, given his responsibility to protect the victims. Furthermore, as a married man, he is subject to execution according to Islamic teachings, even if the crime is committed against a foreign woman, so how much more so when the victim is his own young daughters. Siyaj considered this crime extremely serious and detrimental to the security and safety of society, given that it constituted incest and the victims were minors. Siyaj reiterated its call to the Yemeni Parliament, the Supreme Judicial Council, and the Public Prosecution to review the laws related to crimes against children, so that the harshest possible penalties can be enacted to achieve deterrence, especially in cases of parental crimes against children and so-called honor crimes in general. Siyaj also called for the adoption of investigative mechanisms capable of uncovering the truth behind these crimes and for the development of tools used in crime detection, including the use of DNA testing.
