Blog 5: Woman allegedly raped by police faces prosecution

Tunisia: Woman allegedly raped by police faces prosecution

A Tunisian woman is now being summoned to court on indecency charges after she accused security forces of raping her.  Amnesty International has deemed that rape by any security official should be considered as torture because it is used as a form of repression.  The report explained that the woman and her fiancé were found in an “immoral position” inside their car by three police officers.  The couple denied the charges.

  

The woman later filed a report with officials that two of the security officials raped her inside the car while the third allegedly took her fiancé to an ATM and proceeded to extort money from him.  The officers were arrested and charged with rape and extortion.  However, instead of the officers being held for their crimes, the woman was arrested for indecency charges.  Many fear that the treatment of the victim will deter other women from reporting incidents of rape to authority. 

The officers are not coming off as caring much about this woman’s story.  An investigation should take place to help with her story.  This is a clear violation of the female’s human rights; from being raped and humiliation of the charges brought against her.  Authority figures should take the time to notice that there should be a change in their justice system in terms of protecting rape victims and the how authority figures may be abusing their powers.  They are intimidating and deterring those who might actually have a problem from coming forth and reporting it. 

Here is a link to the original article: