Saudi Arabia: Rape victim pardoned
Posted: May 15, 2008
Women in Saudi Arabia continue to face discrimination. There are severe restrictions on their freedom of movement, and it is a crime to be alone with a member of the opposite sex who is not an immediate family member.
HASSAN AMMAR/AFP/Getty Images
The sentences of flogging and imprisonment imposed on a 20-year-old woman rape victim, known only as the “Girl from al-Qatif”, and her male companion are reported to have been dropped under a pardon granted in December 2007 by Saudi Arabia's Head of State, King Abdullah.
The authorities are also reported to have dropped the disciplinary case they brought against her lawyer, Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, for publicly criticising the sentences, and allowed him to resume his legal practice.
They were convicted in 2006 for a Khilwa offence - being alone in private with a member of the opposite sex who is not an immediate family member - under Shariah law.
The “Girl from al-Qatif” and her male companion were convicted and sentenced in November 2006 although they had been the victims of an attack by a seven-man gang, who kidnapped them at knifepoint and then gang-raped the girl.
The gang members, who were convicted of kidnapping and rape, were sentenced at the same time.
The sentencing of the woman following her rape ordeal generated shock and anger among human rights activists as well as members of the public in Saudi Arabia.
It also generated a rare debate in the country on the inconsistencies of the judicial system and its failure to reflect the gravity of the crimes committed against the woman.
Amnesty International has previously highlighted such failures, including the interrogation and trial of women on sensitive and private matters by all-male panels of interrogators and judges.
On November 15, 2007, a court in eastern Saudi Arabia increased the sentences on all those involved. The gang members' sentences were increased to between two and nine years' imprisonment and floggings while the rape victim and her companion had their sentences increased to six months' imprisonment and a flogging, increased from 90 to 200 lashes.
Amnesty members around the world responded to an Urgent Action on the case.