Jailed rape victim ‘admitted adultery’
It is the ministry’s latest response to negative international reaction to the incident. The statement, carried by the Saudi Press Agency, confirmed that the flogging sentence would be carried out and also condemned foreign interference.
“The Saudi justice minister expressed his regret about the media reports over the role of the women in this case which put out false information and wrongly defend her,” said the statement.
“The charged girl is a married woman who confessed to having an affair with the man she was caught with.”
In 2006, a Shi’ite Saudi 19-year-old, known only as the “Girl from Qatif” said she had recently been married and met a high school friend in his car to retrieve a picture of herself from him.
While in a car with him, two men got into the vehicle and drove them to a secluded area where others waited, and then she and her companion were both raped.
She was sentenced to prison and 90 lashes for being alone with a man not related to her, and when her lawyer, Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, appealed the sentence, he was removed from the case, his licence suspended and the penalty more than doubled to 200 lashes.
The increase in sentence received heavy coverage by the international media and prompted expressions of astonishment from the US government. Canada called it “barbaric”.
The alleged rape has triggered a rare debate about Saudi Arabia’s legal system, in which judges have wide discretion in punishing a criminal, rules of evidence are shaky and sometimes no lawyers are present.
The seven men convicted of raping the woman were given prison sentences of two to nine years. The initial sentences ranged from 10 months to five years in prison.
