Gang-rape sentence defended
2007-11-21 07:23
Riyadh - Saudi Arabia defended on Tuesday a court's decision to sentence a woman who was gang-raped to 200 lashes of the whip, after the United States described the verdict as "astonishing".
The 19-year-old Shi'ite woman from the town of Qatif in the Eastern Province and an unrelated male companion were abducted and raped by seven men in 2006.
Ruling according to Saudi Arabia's strict reading of Islamic law, a court had originally sentenced the woman to 90 lashes and the rapists to jail terms of between 10 months and five years.
It blamed the woman for being alone with an unrelated man.
The Supreme Judicial Council last week increased the
sentence to 200 lashes and six months in prison and ordered the
rapists to serve between two and nine years in jail.
The ruling provoked rare criticism from the United States,
which is trying to persuade Saudi Arabia to attend a Middle East
peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland next week.
A State Department spokesperson said that
"most (people) would find this relatively astonishing that
something like this happens".
The court also took the unusual step of initiating
disciplinary procedures against her lawyer, Abdul-Rahman
al-Lahem, forcibly removing him from the case for having talked
about it to the media.
New York-based Human Rights Watch has called on King
Abdullah, who last month announced plans to overhaul the system,
to drop all charges against the woman.
A series of erratic verdicts have focused attention on the
Saudi legal system, which is dominated by clerics who adhere to
the kingdom's austere Sunni form of Islamic law.
- Reuters