UNITED
NATIONS, July
19, updated
twice -- A
Norwegian
woman who went
to work in
Dubai and
reported being
raped there in
March has now
been sentenced
to 16
months in jail
for having sex
out of
wedlock.
At
the UN in New
York, Inner
City Press on
Friday asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
if the UN
Secretariat
had any
comment on the
jail sentence.
Video
here from
Minute 15:40.
“I
don't think
so, no,”
Nesirky said.
"I'm not
dismissing
this story,
I'm simply
don't have any
comment on that.
I'd need to
check further
in case there
was any comment.
I think where
there are individual
cases, it's
not always
appropriate
for the UN
Secretariat to
comment, but
that doesn't
mean that I won't
look into it."
Video
here, from
Minute 16:02.
It
may sometimes
be true that
"in individual
cases it is
not always
appropriate
for the UN
Secretariat to
comment," but
here the woman
stayed
quiet from
March until
this week
hoping it
would help. It
did not.
She
has come
forward,
saying her
name is Marte
Dalelv and she
was
recruited to
work in Dubai
by a company
called The One
-- which fired
her after she
reported being
raped.
The
One's website
still plays
music, and
lists in Dubai
“Fusion Al
Quoz
Theatre &
Deli, Jumeirah
Theatre &
Deli, Mall of
the Emirates
Theatre, THE
One Outlet and
Wafi Boutique
Theatre,” as
well as
locations in
Abu Dhabi in
the United
Arab Emirates,
as well as in
Bahrain,
Jordan,
Kuwait,
Lebanon,
Tunisia and
Qatar.
The
CEO of The
One, Thomas
Lundgren, has
been tweeting
Instagram
photos
of himself
watching black
and white TV
with his
grandmother,
most
recently on
July 16.
Sounds like
UNsocial
media.
Ban
Ki-moon, it
should be
noted, has
commented on
other
individual
cases.
Why not this
one?
Inner City
Press has
noted, for
example, that
Ban
took free
airplane
transportation
from the
ruling family
of the
United Arab
Emirates,
questioning it
if might not
create a
conflict
of interest as
some later
date.
Might such a
date have
arrived? We
ask these
questions with
all due
respect, only
in the spirit
of reform and
transparency.
Watch
this site.
, 
