No Girl Left Behind: A Jamie Austen Spy Thriller (THE SPY STORIES Book 5) by Terry Toler

Author:Terry Toler [Toler, Terry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2021-04-28T22:00:00+00:00

18

Court of First Instance

Tribal Village outside of Abu Dhabi

Christopher’s trial started today. Any minute actually. A hearing more than a trial according to his attorney, Malak Abdallah, who was explaining the procedures to us. A railroading more than a hearing, after listening to him describe the process.

“Don’t be under any illusions that this will be a fair trial,” he said to those of us in the room. Aunt Shule was there. As were Mr. and Mrs. Tate. Samitah, Amina’s mom, was noticeably missing. Her husband wouldn’t let her attend.

MJ’s trial was in three days, and Amina’s was a week from now. According to Malak, the judge was from Dubai and traveled two days a week to preside over the cases in that particular village. Malak commented that the prosecutor was likely being strategic in scheduling Christopher’s trial first to gather evidence to use against MJ.

The building was nothing more than an above average home that had been renovated to serve their purposes as a makeshift courthouse. It consisted of one large room where the trial took place, along with an office for the judge, and four small rooms for the parties to use. One room Malak described was basically a ten-foot by ten-foot prison cell. No bars, but locks and steel hooks on the walls where the defendants were chained while they waited for the proceedings to begin. A bench was attached to each wall around the entire room and seated up to a dozen or more people.

I was horrified to learn that all the defendants were kept in the ten-by-ten cell and tried on the same day. MJ would be in there with her father, who was being charged with domestic abuse. Amina would have to be in the holding cell with the four men who raped her. A guard would be in there to protect them, but the girls were victimized once again.

Not only was that unfair, but the charges were bordering on absurd. The father should’ve been charged with attempted murder. Domestic abuse didn’t even begin to describe what he’d done to her by setting her on fire and permanently disfiguring her. The charges against Amina’s assailants were even more outrageous. None were charged with rape. Three were charged with fornication. Meaning they had sex outside of marriage. Amina had the same three charges filed against her. A twisted and perverted way of thinking that somehow forcible rape was viewed the same as consensual sex.

The married man was charged with the more serious crime of adultery. As was Amina. None of the men were charged with assault. They all admitted to the sexual contact, but each denied hitting MJ and didn’t know how she got her injuries. Lying and perjury must be permissible under their twisted rationalization of theology and sin.

I offered to testify, but Malak was against it. I could testify that I saw them hitting her. If they were going to lie to get off, I’d lie to get them convicted. Malak said that all I would do was make things worse because I’d also be testifying that the men raped her.

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