Saudi rape victim defiant, vows to fight sentence

RIYADH: A Saudi woman sentenced to six months in jail and 200 lashes despite being gangraped has vowed to challenge the ruling in a case that has received wide publicity, embarrassing the Saudi government.

The case “sums up the major problems that the Saudi judiciary faces,” said the woman’s lawyer, Abdurrahman al-Lahem.

The 19-year-old’s identity has not been revealed but she has become known as “Qatif girl,” after the Shia-populated area of Al-Qatif in the eastern province she hails from.

After the rape in October 2006, she was sentenced to 90 lashes for having been in a car with a man who is not a relative. The higher judicial council granted a retrial but, on November 14, a court toughened her sentence to six months in jail and 200 lashes.

The woman’s husband said they would appeal, even though the judge had warned them not to.

The judges decided to punish the woman further for “her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media,” a court source said.

In the court’s view, the girl, who was 18 at the time of the incident, was guilty because she was in the company of a male stranger who apparently had pictures of her she wanted to take back. Both were abducted and sexually assaulted by a gang of seven men, newspapers said.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com