A court in Maldives had ordered a 16 year old girl who had involved in sex with an older man to be punished with 100 lashes and eight months of house arrest, on Monday.
She had reportedly accepted to have had sex with a 29 year old after her family had pressed charges. The man was convicted for having sex with a minor and was sentenced to 10 years in jail according to a private news agency.
According to reports the couple indulged in sex at the Raa atoll, 200 km away from Male, the capital of Maldives. The court added that that punishment would be enforced once she attains legal age of 18, when she reaches her adulthood.
The punishment ruling had come only after 10 months after UN Human Rights chief Navi Pillay had asked the country to stop flogging women for extra-marital sex on his last visit to the country when he praised the nation that it had developed a lot in protection of women rights.
Flogging is normally handed down as a punishment by village chiefs who also act as local judges. A cane is used.
The Maldives, better known as a luxury tourist destination, had witnessed political instability after the first elected president, Mohamed Nasheed had resigned in February within just four years of adoption of a multi-party Democracy.
(AW- Anil)
