ABU DHABI // Public prosecutors and defence lawyers have joined together in court to argue that a 14-year-old girl jailed for having consensual sex with her school bus driver should not have been tried under Sharia. The basis of the lawyers' argument is that, first, the girl is not a Muslim, and second, the offence of which she was convicted is covered by UAE law and not Sharia.
The Brazilian teenager was sentenced to six months in jail followed by deportation for consensual sex, after initially claiming she had been raped by MH, a 28-year-old Pakistani.
Court records show that the initial Sharia charge of zina (sex out of wedlock) was changed to one of consensual sex because the charge did not meet Sharia standards after the girl withdrew the rape allegation. For a conviction of zina, according to Sharia, four reliable witnesses should have seen the act or the accused should confess before the court. Consensual sex should be prosecuted under UAE law. Also, under UAE law, a defendant must be over 18 to be tried as an adult. The lawyers argue that Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of First Instance has therefore made an error.
The UAE legal system follows a dual track, with laws passed by Government functioning alongside Sharia. Judges choose which laws take precedence, although Sharia must be implemented in certain cases, such as sex out of wedlock. Legal experts said yesterday that while Sharia says a defendant can be tried as an adult when they have reached the age of puberty, it also requires mental and emotional maturity. Evidence of puberty includes facial hair for boys and menstruation for girls.
The judge at the Criminal Court, according to court records, asked the girl in a private hearing whether she had begun menstruation. The teenager replied that she had, at the age of 12.
Implementing Sharia on non-Muslims is subject to debate, said Dr Ahmed Abdulzaher, a legal consultant for the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department. "Depending on which interpretation of Sharia they use, judges could try a case according to either Sharia or the country's secular law," Dr Abdulzaher said.
Another major issue that complicates the case, according to the advocate Nehro Hajjaj, is a lack of UAE legislation concerning defendants involved in offences against minors, other than domestic abuse cases.
The teenager initially accused MH of raping her in her home in Abu Dhabi home April 4, but at a hearing in Abu Dhabi Criminal Court last month, after being charged with consensual sex, the girl retracted all her claims, denying she ever had sex with the man.
The driver denied the charge and prosecutors argued that it would have been difficult for MH to enter the girl's home without her consent, which meant any sex was consensual. They also said a maid, who was home at the time, did not mention hearing any cries that could have indicated rape.
The teenager is still free on bail and attended the hearings with her Brazilian mother and German stepfather. Although the court sentenced her to imprisonment, court officials said yesterday it was difficult to put her in a prison because there are only adults. The criminal court did not state she could be put in a correction centre for minors, making it difficult to take her into custody.
MH was held in police custody throughout the proceedings and sentenced to a year in prison followed by deportation.
hhassan@thenational.ae
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
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If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
Dark Souls: Remastered
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Date started: 2012
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Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
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More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
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Price, base / as tested: Dh78,000 / Dh97,650
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Power: 182hp @ 6,000rpm
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Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
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- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
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- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
AGUERO'S PREMIER LEAGUE RECORD
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Robo-advisers use an online sign-up process to gauge an investor’s risk tolerance by feeding information such as their age, income, saving goals and investment history into an algorithm, which then assigns them an investment portfolio, ranging from more conservative to higher risk ones.
These portfolios are made up of exchange traded funds (ETFs) with exposure to indices such as US and global equities, fixed-income products like bonds, though exposure to real estate, commodity ETFs or gold is also possible.
Investing in ETFs allows robo-advisers to offer fees far lower than traditional investments, such as actively managed mutual funds bought through a bank or broker. Investors can buy ETFs directly via a brokerage, but with robo-advisers they benefit from investment portfolios matched to their risk tolerance as well as being user friendly.
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Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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