GR 130640; (June, 1999) (Digest)
G.R. No. 130640 June 21, 1999
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. SHAREFF ALI EL AKHTAR, accused-appellant.
FACTS
The accused-appellant, Shareff Ali El Akhtar, a Libyan national, was convicted by the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City for the crime of rape and sentenced to death. The complainant, Gina Rozon, a 17-year-old, testified that on July 17, 1996, while mailing a letter at the Lagro Post Office, appellant abducted her by forcing her into a tricycle. He brought her to his house in Lagro Subdivision, Quezon City, where he detained her for ten days. During her captivity, he forced her to drink drugged beverages, causing her to fall unconscious on multiple occasions. Each time she awoke, she found herself naked, in pain, and with blood on the bedsheet, leading her to conclude she had been sexually assaulted.
Her aunt and relatives, suspicious of appellant after her disappearance, went to his house but found a room padlocked. They reported to the police. On the tenth day, upon learning police were outside, appellant ordered Gina to copy love letters to simulate a consensual relationship before releasing her. She immediately reported the rape. The trial court credited her testimony and found appellant guilty of qualified rape with the use of a deadly weapon (a knife), imposing the death penalty.
ISSUE
Whether the trial court correctly convicted the accused-appellant of qualified rape punishable by death.
RULING
The Supreme Court affirmed the conviction but modified the penalty. The Court found the complainant’s testimony credible, consistent, and corroborated by her immediate report and the physical evidence of her condition upon release. The element of carnal knowledge through force and intimidation was established. However, the Court ruled that the circumstances qualifying the rape to warrant the death penalty were not sufficiently proven. The use of the knife was not to consummate the rape but to threaten her against leaving the room and to ensure her continued detention. Therefore, the special qualifying circumstance of the use of a deadly weapon under Article 335 of the Revised Penal Code, as amended, was not present. Consequently, the crime committed was simple rape. The Court convicted appellant of three counts of simple rape, corresponding to the separate occasions of sexual assault proven during the ten-day captivity, and sentenced him to reclusion perpetua for each count. He was also ordered to pay indemnity and moral damages for each count.