|
Manama: A Bahraini doctor has castigated a court regarding its lenient sentence for an imam who molested a teenage girl, saying he would have been castrated under French law.
The imam, of Asian origin, was initially sentenced to ten years in prison followed by deportation after being found guilty of molesting the 14-year-old girl whom he was supposed to help memorise the Quran. However, the sentence was slashed to one year and no deportation.
Shocking
"This is utterly shocking. All divine and non-divine laws, children's rights and human values strongly condemn what the man did to the innocent girl and the court should have never been lenient with him. He should have been castrated as per French law," Dr Wedad Al Banna said in a statement obtained by Gulf News.
In 2005, Nicolas Sarkozy, then France's interior minister, proposed chemically castrating some sex offenders after they are released from prison to stop them from re-offending.
Al Banna, a counsellor at the College of Health Sciences, said in a statement yesterday the court should have also taken action against the girl's family for forgiving the man.
She warned the court's clemency would send the wrong signal to would-be sex offenders and child molesters.
The imam had been hired by the girl's family to tutor her at home, but one day made her sit on his lap and started touching her.
|
