印度优步司机绑架强奸女乘客被判有罪
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——周二，拼车服务公司优步(Uber)的一名前司机因去年强奸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.
法院对去年12月发生在新德里的这起侵犯事件裁定，司机希夫·库马尔·亚达夫(Shiv Kumar Yadav)除了危及一名女性的生命安全并对其实施强奸，绑架的罪名亦成立。受害人是一名26岁的女性乘客，她说自己在车的后座上睡着了，醒来后发现身处偏远地区，而亚达夫在后座，就在自己身边。周五，法院将举行量刑听证会，亚达夫最高可面临终生监禁。
“Obviously we will be asking for that,” the public prosecutor in the case, Atul Srivastava, told the Indian news channel NDTV.
“我们显然会提请法官采纳这样的刑罚，”该案的公诉人阿图尔·斯里瓦斯塔瓦(Atul Srivastava)对印度的新闻频道新德里电视台(NDTV)说。
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.
这起事件在德里被称为“优步强奸案”。它引发了人们对于当地叫车服务危险性的广泛忧虑。在印度，引人注目的强奸案近年来频频发生。而在新德里，女性在天黑后难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.”
此事曝光后，政府禁止了优步在德里的业务。但优步以“监管不明”为由令这类叫车服务后来得以恢复营业。
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.
对亚达夫的刑事指控一度于今年3月延迟。当时，德里高等法院同意了亚达夫的申诉，决定重新审核13名目击证人，其中包括受害人。但据印度报业托拉斯通讯社(Press Trust of India)报道，最高法院立即阻止执行这一决议，并在9月宣布其无效。
The victim withdrew a lawsuit against Uber in California in September.
同样在9月，受害人撤回了先前在美国加利福尼亚州向优步提出的诉讼。
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月该起事件发生时，亚达夫正处于保释期。他和其他至少三起发生在印度北方邦的严重刑事案件有关，其中包括一桩强奸案。优步雇佣亚达夫的行为也使该公司面临尖锐的舆论指责。人们控诉优步在保证乘客安全方面做得不够。周二，高级警官布里杰达拉·库马尔·亚达夫(Brijendra Kumar Yadav)称，德里警方正在调查，优步是否须对12月的案件负刑事过失之责。
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，优步宣布将在印度建立背景调查机制。优步印度分公司的总裁阿米特·杰恩(Amit Jain)于周二发表声明，对亚达夫一案的判决结果表示欢迎。
“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.”
“性侵犯是极为可怕的罪行，我们很高兴他如今已被绳之以法，”杰恩在声明中称。他还强调，优步“已从这骇人听闻的案件中吸取教训”，大力加强了背景调查并采取了新的技术手段。
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.
亚达夫一案从开庭到结案花了不到一年的时间，在印度的强奸案中算得上迅速。在印度，强奸案有可能会在刑事和司法程序上拖延多年。据印度国家犯罪统计局(National Crime Records Bureau)的资料，在2014年底，印度尚有85%的强奸案待审，而强奸案的定罪率不超过1/3。
