Sydney: An Afghan man was sentenced to 14 years in jail, after a judge rejected his claim that cultural differences had allowed him to rape a woman.
Esmatullah Sharifi, 30, who fled from the Taliban to Australia, had reportedly raped a drunk teenager, who he had found alone, drugged and sitting on the pavement near a nightclub after she had had a disagreement with her friends.
Judge Mark Dean said that his background as a traumatised Muslim refugee was no excuse for the rape of a drunken and vulnerable teenager. “You preyed upon a young vulnerable stranger who was alone and intoxicated at night. Your brutal conduct must be denounced by this court,” the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.
The Afghan refugee had reportedly raped the drunken teenager after picking her up outside a nightclub in Melbourne and driving her to a dark street. According to reports, it was not the first time that Sharifi had appeared in court on charges of rape. In 2009, five days after he had raped a teenager on the Christmas Eve of 2008, he was jailed for a minimum of seven years on charges of abduction and sexual assault of a woman.
With a maximum sentence of 14 years set, he will have to serve a minimum of 11 years and will be eligible for parole in seven years and eight months. He is likely to be deported back to Afghanistan when he has served his sentence.
ANI
