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Saudi gang rape victim is jailed (yeah you read it right....)

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An appeal court in Saudi Arabia has doubled the number of lashes and added a jail sentence as punishment for a woman who was gang-raped.

The victim was initially punished for violating laws on segregation of the sexes - she was in an unrelated man's car at the time of the attack.

When she appealed, the judges said she had been attempting to use the media to influence them.

The attackers' sentences - originally of up to five years - were doubled.

According to the Arab News newspaper, the 19-year-old woman, who is from Saudi Arabia's Shia minority, was gang-raped 14 times in an attack in the eastern province a year-and-a-half ago.

Seven men from the majority Sunni community were found guilty of the rape and sentenced to prison terms ranging from just under a year to five years.

But the victim was also punished for violating Saudi Arabia's laws on segregation that forbid unrelated men and women from associating with each other. She was initially sentenced to 90 lashes for being in the car of a strange man.

On appeal, the Arab News reported that the punishment was not reduced but increased to 200 lashes and a six-month prison sentence.

The rapists also had their prison terms doubled. But the sentences are still low considering they could have faced the death penalty.

The Arab News quoted an official as saying the judges had decided to punish the girl for trying to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media.

The victim's lawyer was suspended from the case, has had his licence to work confiscated, and faces a disciplinary session.




WTF???????
danieldewinter

5 responses // Saudi gang rape victim is jailed (yeah you read it right....)

  • Shocking. Absolutely. Shocking.
    abbym0308
  • That's just par for the course for the Saudis. Consider this excerpt from a report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom:

    "In one case, the Commission was told of a foreign domestic worker who had become pregnant after being raped by her employer. She was subsequently imprisoned because it is illegal for female foreign workers to become pregnant in Saudi Arabia if they are not married."

    http://www.uscirf.gov/countries/region/middleast/saudi/...

    And if the ruling of that judge amazes you, guess who he looks to for controlling legal precedent:

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7645118/

    Saudi society is saturated with this crap. It's truly endemic:

    http://www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com
    BillinChicago
  • You know, this is just another example of the hypocrisy in this administration and the barbarism in this back ally country. Yea i understand a lot of these people are reasonable, but any country that sets up a social standard for women that rivals Atwood's novel a Handmaid's Tale while using the judicial system to support these ideals is at the very least disgusting. The only thing that bothers me more than this article is the fact that the U.S., the country that pretty much wrote the book on women's rights, has diminished it's standing on this issue. It pains how much America has changed in the past eight years, but at the same leaves me with a sense of optimism never felt before in the political arena, reminding me why this country is so great in the first place. So this is me telling you vote 08'.
    redryan
  • I notice that few people are upset that the woman's male friend was also gang raped and his sentence was upped as well.

    This crime was horrific to both victims and to be victimized by their government on top of that horror is inexcusable.
    beck7422
  • clearly to us it makes absolutely no sense. i wonder what the feeling is in Saudi Arabia though. has anyone heard anything out of there?
    friendlytoad

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