“A Country of Whores”

In one of his posts about Iraqis in Denmark, TB gave a brief account of the tumultuous appearance in court by four Iraqi youths who were convicted of gang-raping a 14-year-old girl. Now we have a lengthier account of the proceedings, in which the criminals’ relatives threatened to kill the judge and tried to break up the courtroom.

This article was originally published in the Danish online magazine Sappho, and was translated by our Danish correspondent Kepiblanc:

Four Iraqis convicted of rape of 14-year-old and expelled for life

Violent turmoil in Kolding courtroom following conviction

Thursday evening four Iraqis were expelled for life from Denmark by the Western Appeals Court in Kolding. The men were convicted of raping a 14-year-old Danish girl repeatedly at the Vorbasse Fair, July 2008.

The case was an appeal case from February this year, where the four Iraqis in a District Court [first instance — translator] received a suspended verdict.

The State Attorney appealed the suspended verdict and demanded unconditional deportation for life and an augmented sentence. After the ruling was handed down things turned into violent turmoil.

Penalty

The four Iraqis were sentenced to two years and nine months imprisonment.

For three of the Iraqis, Hussein Maayuf Al-Badri, Abdullaziz Khazar Jebir and Fahud Maziad Massaad, the verdict confirmed the ruling of the District Court.

For the fourth Iraqi, Abdullah Al-Badri Maayuf, the ruling meant a reduced sentence of six months when he was acquitted of one of two counts of rape.

The men were jointly convicted of having raped the girl vaginally and orally. The girl was aged 14 years two weeks prior to the assault.

The indictment included anal intercourse, but neither court found sufficient evidence thereof.

The forensic examinations could not be sufficiently fulfilled due to the girl’s physical and mental condition and her young age at the time examination — only a few hours after the assault.

- - - - - - - - -

Furthermore, all four were indicted for sexual intercourse and other sexual relations with a person under 15 years of age.

The verdict included those acts as all four Iraqis were found guilty here as well.

In its final procedure Fahud Maziad Massaad’s attorney claimed that his client believed the victim was 16 years old “because she had consumed alcohol. One must only buy beer when 16 years old.”

The State Prosecutor replied: “Accordingly, the plaintiffs may also have thought she was over 18 what with the Vorbasse Fair being a public outlet. So, logically, according to the plaintiff he must have considered her being over 18. But he didn’t say so.”

Furthermore Maayuf Hussein Al-Badri mentioned that the girl was taller than himself, so she had to be older.

Maayuf Abdullah Al-Badri was also accused of two cases of rape and two cases of sexual intercourse with a person under 15 years old. Unlike the District Court, the Court found that it was not sufficiently proven that the first case of rape had taken place under duress. So he had his verdict reduced by six months.

All four were also indicted of stealing the girl’s cell phone and 50 kroner [about $10].

All four were convicted.

Contradictory explanations

Generally the four convicts came up with highly conflicting evidence. Additionally, they had defended themselves with direct lies, for which they had no explanation apart from examples such as: “When you lie once, you get the urge to lie more.” Or, from the hearing: “lied during the first interrogation,” as the police report says on one of the plaintiffs.

The only explanation that seemed fairly consistent with the first police interrogation came from Abdullaziz Khazar Jebir.

Expulsion

According to the Danish Immigration Act of 2008, an alien must be deported if convicted of rape. This also applies to sexual intercourse with a person under 15 years of age.

“Therefore,” the prosecutor said in closing his case, “it has not been the legislature’s intention that deportation should be made conditional where an automatic deportation is mandated” — with explicit reference to the District Court’s first decision on the conditional deportation.

After which the prosecutor stated that case-in-point was that people who previously would not have been deported should be so today. In other words, a conditional deportation is an exception from normal deportation and not the opposite.

The only valid circumstances to contraindicate a deportation are tight bonds with Denmark, illness, family circumstances, etc. Such circumstances must however be rigorously compared to the gravity of the actual crime.

Socially debilitated

17-year old Abdullaziz Khazar Jebir’s attorney, in closing his defense, pointed to a psychological evaluation of his client’s mental state. The psychologist found the plaintiff being “mentally retarded”, “socially debilitated” and taking medication.

The Appeals Court found that being less intelligent did not disqualify a cause for deportation.

Abdullaziz Khazar Jebir has been living in Denmark since December 2005. During the trial, he often needed an interpreter. In Iraq, he has 27 or 29 full and half siblings, his father having three wives. Before he came to Denmark he lived for two to three years in Syria.

In closing his case, Johnny Norup, defender of Fahud Maziad Massaad, said that deportation of his client to Iraq could be compared to being deported “to a remote province in China with no opportunity to return”. To which the prosecutor replied that “if Norup knew the language and had lived over half his life in a remote province in China, Norup probably could do quite well.”

21-year-old Fahud Maziad Massaad has resided in Denmark since 2000, where he was family-reunited with his father in accordance with contemporaneous legislation. On a few occasions during the trial he had to use the interpreter. Moreover, he was applying for Danish citizenship, but did not make the exam before he was arrested.

The court followed the prosecutor’s recommendation of deportation for good.

20-year-old Abdullah and 22-year-old Hussein Al-Badri Maayuf are brothers and have resided in Denmark since April 2004. The big brother, all through the first few days in court putting his hopes in the Muslim prayer wreath, has diabetes and is on sickness benefit. He speaks virtually no Danish and had to depend on the interpreter throughout the trial. The little brother’s Danish were marginally better, but he too was dependent on the interpreter. Both brothers’ parents and five siblings live in Denmark.

The court sentenced both brothers to deportation for good.

Land of Whores and a shattered window

Where there was jubilation and victory mood in the District Court after the first, conditional verdict, the situation turned into turmoil in the minutes following the second, when the judge had stated the verdict of unconditional deportation.

Abdullah Al-Badri Maayuf began shouting from the stand: “I will kill!” And one of the fathers stood up, threw his coat and headed in the direction of the judges while on their way out. One of the eight officers present and the interpreter managed to stop him, after which he lay down on the floor and cried before has was carried outside. The floor also had to endure quite a bit of saliva.

Several people present stood up, and in a mixture of Arabic and Danish expressed their contempt for the nation, which they called “a country of whores” and “racist Denmark”.

Abdullah Al-Badri Maayuf threw a chair after the prosecutor, and two officers had to pacify him. A few of the approximately 25-strong audience approached the prosecutor, who had to escape through a door usually reserved for defendants. All the while chairs, tables, and door frames were battered with clenched and unclenched fists, kicks and accompanied by high-volume yelling, screaming, and crying.

A window in the courtroom was broken by an Iraqi elbow, and the sound of shattering glass brought in three additional officers. They threw the remaining audience out of the courtroom, while the building echoed with oaths and curses, which continued in the parking lot where about six police officers remained in place until all the cars had left the premises.

Victim and family at a secret address

The now 15-year-old girl today suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome and has been diagnosed with severe depression. So far her bill for psychological treatment amounts to a five-digit sum — and she’s still under psychological treatment. What’s more, she will need additional treatment by a psychiatrist. Today her family lives at a secret address with an unlisted phone number and an alarm system.

At the time of the gang rape the victim had not previously been sexually active.

Throughout the trial the friends and family of the new convicts urged the journalists present not to publish the names of those convicted. The answer to them was that it was a public trial and that the defendants’ names were listed at the entrance to the courtroom, where anyone could read them. And that it is up to the Court, and the Court alone, to decide whether names are publicized or not.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.