A 45-year sentence was yesterday handed down to Muslim scholar Nezaam Ali after he was found guilty of the rape of a nine-year-old boy in 2011.
Ali, of 268 Section ‘C’ 5 South Turkeyen, was charged since 2012 with raping a total of nine boys.
At the conclusion of his first trial before a 12-member jury in the courtroom of Justice Navindra Singh yesterday, he was found guilty of engaging in sexual penetration of a child under the age of 16 by abusing his position of trust between December 5th, 2011 and December 31st, 2011.
The state’s case was led by prosecutors Tuanna Hardy, Abigail Gibbs and Teriq Mohammed.
Attorney Stanley Moore represented the accused.
After several hours of deliberation following the summation of the case by the judge, the jury returned with a unanimous verdict of guilty.
It was Ali’s defence that he could not have committed the crime because he has erectile dysfunction.
The emotionless 38-year-old accused stood in the prisoner’s dock with a blank look on his face after the verdict as his attorney attempted to make a plea in mitigation on his behalf.
Moore stated that there were no aggravating circumstances and noted that in similar cases there are sometimes signs of physical injury, while there was none in the current case.
Moore further stated that there was no evidence of psychological trauma to the victim.
He also told the court that Ali is still of an age where rehabilitation is possible.
Ali was then asked by the judge if he wished to say anything, to which he responded no.
In response to the attorney’s submissions, prosecutor Hardy noted that the victim had deep emotional scars as a result of the act committed against him. She added that the defendant betrayed the trust of the victim by taking away his innocence.
The defendant then heard from Justice Singh, who stated that Ali took advantage of an underprivileged boy as if life hadn’t already dealt him a bad enough hand. He added that instead of helping the victim out of the situation he was in, he exploited it.
Justice Singh noted further that he disagreed with the defence attorney’s argument that the victim showed no sign of psychological trauma, while pointing to the victim’s demeanour while he gave his testimony, even though he was shielded. Ali heard that when the victim tried to look at him it was a struggle and when he was finally able to muster the courage and identify the defendant, he [Ali] smiled.
Ali was subsequently sentenced to 45 years in jail.
On February 22nd, 2018 Magistrate Alex Moore recommitted Ali to stand trial for the alleged rape of nine boys, four years after he was originally committed to stand trial for the crime.
The long-awaited ruling was made after the case was ordered reopened in 2017, after it was discovered that key documents – birth certificates and medical certificates –were missing from the files.
On February 22nd, 2018, those said files were reconstructed.
The matter was scheduled to be heard last October but the trial judge Justice Jo-Ann Barlow could not proceed since she had advised on the case while at the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Justice Singh was later assigned the case.
The mother of three of the nine boys allegedly raped by Ali had filed reports at the Brickdam and Turkeyen police stations alleging that a man approached her sometime last month with an offer of $6 million to abandon the court proceedings.
The frustrated woman, who is a vendor, had recounted that a Muslim brother, who she has known for nearly 20 years, approached her at her stall and enquired about her sons, after which, she said that he turned his attention to the court case.
She recalled telling him that the case will be coming up before a judge in the High Court and the man in response said that “it might shift.” It was at this point, she said, that he enquired why she would want to jail a Muslim brother, before offering her the money to settle the matter.
