印度優步司機綁架強姦女乘客被判有罪
NEW DELHI — A former driver for the ride-sharing service Uber was convicted by a Delhi court on Tuesday of raping a female passenger last year.
新德里——週二，拼車服務公司優步(Uber)的一名前司機因去年強姦女性乘客被德里一所法院宣判有罪。
The former driver, Shiv Kumar Yadav, was also convicted of kidnapping, in addition to rape while endangering the life of a woman, for an assault in New Delhi in December on a 26-year-old passenger who said she had fallen asleep in his vehicle and woken up in a secluded location with Mr. Yadav beside her in the back seat. A sentencing hearing is expected on Friday, and Mr. Yadav faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
法院對去年12月發生在新德里的這起侵犯事件裁定，司機希夫·庫馬爾·亞達夫(Shiv Kumar Yadav)除了危及一名女性的生命安全並對其實施強姦，綁架的罪名亦成立。受害人是一名26歲的女性乘客，她說自己在車的後座上睡着了，醒來後發現身處偏遠地區，而亞達夫在後座，就在自己身邊。週五，法院將舉行量刑聽證會，亞達夫最高可面臨終生監禁。
“Obviously we will be asking for that,” the public prosecutor in the case, Atul Srivastava, told the Indian news channel NDTV.
“我們顯然會提請法官採納這樣的刑罰，”該案的公訴人阿圖爾·斯里瓦斯塔瓦(Atul Srivastava)對印度的新聞頻道新德里電視臺(NDTV)說。
The “Uber rape case,” as it became known in Delhi, elicited widespread concern over the dangers of ride-hailing services in a country like India, where there have been a number of prominent rape cases in recent years, and in cities like New Delhi, where women have difficulty finding safe transport after dark.
這起事件在德里被稱爲“優步強姦案”。它引發了人們對於當地叫車服務危險性的廣泛憂慮。在印度，引人注目的強姦案近年來頻頻發生。而在新德里，女性在天黑後難以找到安全的交通方式。
The government banned Uber in the Delhi region after the case came to light, but Uber and other ride-hailing services resumed operating in what the company has called “regulatory ambiguity.”
此事曝光後，政府禁止了優步在德里的業務。但優步以“監管不明”爲由令這類叫車服務後來得以恢復營業。
The criminal case against Mr. Yadav was delayed in March when the Delhi high court granted Mr. Yadav’s appeal calling for 13 witnesses, including the victim, to be re-examined. But the Supreme Court immediately stayed that order, then struck it down in September, the Press Trust of India reported.
對亞達夫的刑事指控一度於今年3月延遲。當時，德里高等法院同意了亞達夫的申訴，決定重新審覈13名目擊證人，其中包括受害人。但據印度報業托拉斯通訊社(Press Trust of India)報道，最高法院立即阻止執行這一決議，並在9月宣佈其無效。
The victim withdrew a lawsuit against Uber in California in September.
同樣在9月，受害人撤回了先前在美國加利福尼亞州向優步提出的訴訟。
When the episode in December occurred, Mr. Yadav was free on bail in connection with at least three other serious criminal cases, including one of rape, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, and his employment by Uber drew sharp public criticism of the company, which was accused of not doing enough to ensure the safety of its passengers. The Delhi police are investigating whether Uber was criminally negligent in the December case, a senior police official, Brijendra Kumar Yadav, said on Tuesday.
去年12月該起事件發生時，亞達夫正處於保釋期。他和其他至少三起發生在印度北方邦的嚴重刑事案件有關，其中包括一樁強姦案。優步僱傭亞達夫的行爲也使該公司面臨尖銳的輿論指責。人們控訴優步在保證乘客安全方面做得不夠。週二，高級警官布里傑達拉·庫馬爾·亞達夫(Brijendra Kumar Yadav)稱，德里警方正在調查，優步是否須對12月的案件負刑事過失之責。
In January, Uber announced that it would institute background checks in India. In a statement on Tuesday, the president of Uber India, Amit Jain, hailed the verdict against Mr. Yadav.
今年1月，優步宣佈將在印度建立背景調查機制。優步印度分公司的總裁阿米特·傑恩(Amit Jain)於週二發表聲明，對亞達夫一案的判決結果表示歡迎。
“Sexual assault is a terrible crime, and we’re pleased he has now been brought to justice,” Mr. Jain said in the statement, drawing attention to Uber’s enhanced background checks and new technology as “a result of the lessons we learned from this awful case.”
“性侵犯是極爲可怕的罪行，我們很高興他如今已被繩之以法，”傑恩在聲明中稱。他還強調，優步“已從這駭人聽聞的案件中吸取教訓”，大力加強了背景調查並採取了新的技術手段。
Mr. Yadav’s trial began and concluded in less than a year, a relatively quick period for a rape case in India, which can languish in criminal and legal proceedings for years. More than 85 percent of rape cases in India were pending trial at the end of 2014, according to the National Crime Records Bureau of India, and rape cases had a conviction rate of less than one-third.
亞達夫一案從開庭到結案花了不到一年的時間，在印度的強姦案中算得上迅速。在印度，強姦案有可能會在刑事和司法程序上拖延多年。據印度國家犯罪統計局(National Crime Records Bureau)的資料，在2014年底，印度尚有85%的強姦案待審，而強姦案的定罪率不超過1/3。
