Man Freed After High Court Overturns 17-Year Sentence in Sexual Assault Case

A man who had been serving a 17-year prison sentence for the sexual assault of a minor was acquitted by the High Court yesterday.

The case emerged in 2020 when a minor accused their teacher of sexual assault, allegedly occurring between 2019 and 2020. A second allegation involved another individual accused of sexually assaulting the same minor between 2014 and 2015, when the minor was 11 years old.

As a result, both the teacher and the second individual were charged. In 2022, the Criminal Court found the teacher not guilty, but the second individual was convicted and sentenced to 17 years in prison.

However, after the case was appealed, the High Court ruled that the minor had reported the incident six years after it had occurred, and inconsistencies were found between statements given to the Ministry of Gender and Family and to the police. Due to these discrepancies, the court deemed it inappropriate to rely on the minor's family’s testimony, which was based on the minor's account.

The High Court also noted that in the lower court’s proceedings, there was concern that efforts may have been made to exonerate one person while convicting the other. Additionally, the medico-legal reports did not provide sufficient evidence against the second individual, raising questions about how the lower court reached its decision.

Judges Mohamed Niyaz and Chief Justice Hussain Shaheed voted to overturn the Criminal Court’s ruling, leading to the acquittal.

However, dissenting Judge Hassan Shafiu argued that the lower court's judgment was correct, maintaining that the minor’s hesitation to report the initial assaults was understandable and that the absence of physical evidence did not undermine the credibility of the accusations.

Despite this dissent, the High Court’s majority ruling quashed the 17-year prison sentence.