Dubai pardons Norwegian in rape case

A Norwegian woman in a rape case in Dubai dating back to March said she was pardoned on Monday of an extramarital sex charge and allowed to fly home.

"I was told that I've been pardoned," Marte Dalelv, 24, told reporters outside a court in the Muslim emirate, adding that her passport had been returned and she would leave the Gulf state "as soon as possible".

In Oslo, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said that Dalelv was being allowed to leave the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a member.

"Marte (Dalelv) is released! Thanks to everyone who signed up to help," the minister wrote on Twitter, adding that she would be returning home soon.

A court on July 17 sentenced Marte Deborah Dalelv to 16 months in prison for having sex outside marriage, drinking and making false statements. She said a male colleague pulled her into his hotel room and raped her after she asked him to help her find her own room when they had a few drinks.

But Dalelv had said she remained hopeful that she would succeed in an appeal against the ruling by a Dubai court that convicted her last week of extramarital sex, perjury and consuming alcohol without a permit.

Eide said it was "very strange that a person who reports rape is sentenced for acts which in our part of the world is not even a crime."

Dalelv said she has no regrets about coming forward if her warning will protect others from a similar fate.

In the United Arab Emirates, as in some other countries using Islamic law, a rape conviction can require either a confession or the testimony of four adult male witnesses.

According to the UK-based Emirates Centre for Human Rights, Dalelv's is only the latest in a string of cases in which women who have reported being raped have ended up with jail sentences.

Among recent cases, a Briton who alleged she had been raped by three men was fined for drinking alcohol. An Emirati woman was sentenced to a year in prison after claiming to have been gang-raped. An Australian woman was sent to prison for 11 months after reporting a gang-rape to police, the Centre said.

Dalelv said she did not realize she would be treated as a criminal rather than as a victim, until after she reported the assault and found herself being interrogated at a police station. An officer asked if she was making the rape report because she had not enjoyed the sex.

"That is when I knew - I don't think they are going to believe me at all," she said.

"I am very surprised because we had a DNA report, we had a medical report ... and still [the authorities] didn't believe me."

AFP-Reuters