Ethical challenges of expert witness on sexual violence in Islamic perspective

Abstract

Cases of sexual violence are often difficult to prove. Modern litigation often involves experts. Qualifications of the expert is usually determined by the judge, not regulated by law, required knowledge, skill, experience, training, competence and authority is determined by the judge. Lawyers often require someone with technical expertise to explain the material or background of this case. However, the use of experts also raises a number of ethical issues, and interesting to note that the court did not consider the ethical rules of the expert witness. Qualifications and attitudes required an honesty, objective, thorough, scientific, impartial, neat, polite, prepared, assertive and confident expert, but there needs to be other considerations such as ethics and religion, especially in cases with weak/lack evidence. There are so manyverses in the Al‐Quran forbid us to do a deal in falsehood. "Help you one another in Al‐Birr and At‐ Taqwa (virtue, righteousness and piety); but do not help one another in sin and transgression. And fear Allah. Verily, Allah is Severe in punishment." (Al‐Quran Al‐ Ma'idah [5]: 2). In the story of losing armor of Sayidina Ali in the Battle of Shiffin, which was taken by the Jews, where the incident occurred without witnesses made a judge decided to free the Jewish people, although Sayidina Ali filed expert witness of his own son who later denied this judge indicates that the perpetrator crime cannot be punished if without sufficient evidence and witnesses, consideration of some proposition in Al‐ Quran and Al‐hadith in Islamic perspective allows us to reject an expert witness in order not to give false facilities to the perpetrators of the post‐decision later.