© Helmut Meyer zur Capellen / Global Look Pres
Following a years-long investigation, a criminal court in the Seine-et-Marne district near the French capital has ruled a now 30-year-old man cannot be charged with the rape of an 11-year-old girl, as no evidence of "threat or violence" has been established.
The man, a Cape Verdean native, was 22 years old when he met the girl in the city of Nevers in central France, where she was on vacation visiting family. The girl, who is of Congolese origin, was playing with her cousin in the street when the man approached her and invited her to a walk in the park,
Le Parisien reported. There, the then 11-year-old was undressed and subjected to sexual intercourse, she claims, saying she asked the man to stop and told the stranger her age.
The man maintains the act was consensual, and that the girl told him she was almost 15-years-old - the age of consent in France. However, to obtain a rape conviction, prosecutors needed to prove that sex was non-consensual. The girl's counselor, who met her after the incident, said
she was of "girlish physique, [and] could not be confused with a teenager or a woman," according to
Le Parisien.
Comment: For reasons not yet clear, in recent months there has been sudden shift in Saudi Arabia's internal politics, what is clear is that the current rulers of the infamously repressive regime have recently visited with the heads of the US and Russia, and along with this have begun cracking down on corruption in certain circles. At the same time Saudia Arabia continues it's disregard for human life by bombing Yemen: