A Tunisian has been acquitted of raping his sister-in-law over a period of 10 years after the court found there was nothing that corroborated her version of events.

In 2004, the woman, now 26 years old, had reported to the police that, since the age of nine, she had been repeatedly raped by the accused, who cannot be named by court order. She claimed he had raped her in her father’s house, in his two cars and also in Tunis when they went on holiday. He threatened to kill her by tying her to the propeller of his small boat if she opened her mouth, the woman had told the police.

Another sister of the alleged victim testified that the latter had spoken to her about some issues she had with the accused such as her discomfort at the way he used to speak to her.

The witness said that when she was pregnant with her first child, the accused had asked her to have sex with him but when she refused he did not insist.

She also said that before the accused married her sister, he had asked her to go out with him and had even exposed himself to her. She rejected him and the issue stopped there.

The witness said her sister did not say anything about rape and she never saw the accused do anything to her sister. She added that her sister had spent some time at Mount Carmel Hospital in psychiatric care and was still receiving treatment.

The victim testified that the accused had first abused her in the bathroom of her father’s house and she first had sex with him at the age of 10. She said that in Tunis he had abused her at his mother’s house and had also raped her in his father’s field.

Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona said that after examining all the evidence he was not convinced about the version of events as given by the alleged victim, especially after she had changed her version on the witness stand and then retracted the allegations. This discrepancy in her version led the court to doubt what she had said and by law any doubt would favour the accused, he said.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri appeared for the accused.