ISLAMIST JUSTICE/update
Our petrodollars at work there and at a Saudi financed mosque near us. The photo of the woman and sent to Dr. Homa Darabi 20 days after she received 50 lashes in Iran. Now figure - 200 lashes for the crime of being gang raped!
A court in the ultra-conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia is punishing a female victim of gang rape with 200 lashes and six months in jail, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
The 19-year-old woman -- whose six armed attackers have been sentenced to jail terms -- was initially ordered to undergo 90 lashes for "being in the car of an unrelated male at the time of the rape," the Arab News reported.
But in a new verdict issued after Saudi Arabia's Higher Judicial Council ordered a retrial, the court in the eastern town of Al-Qatif more than doubled the number of lashes to 200.
A court source told the English-language Arab News that the judges had decided to punish the woman further for "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media."
Saudi Arabia enforces a strict Islamic doctrine known as Wahhabism and forbids unrelated men and women from associating with each other, bans women from driving and forces them to cover head-to-toe in public.
Last year, the court sentenced six Saudi men to between one and five years in jail for the rape as well as ordering lashes for the victim, a member of the minority Shiite community.
But the woman's lawyer Abdul Rahman al-Lahem appealed, arguing that the punishments were too lenient in a country where the offense can carry the death penalty.
In the new verdict issued on Wednesday, the Al-Qatif court also toughened the sentences against the six men to between two and nine years in prison.
The case has angered members of Saudi Arabia's Shiite community. The convicted men are Sunni Muslims, the dominant community in the oil-rich Gulf state.
Lahem, also a human rights activist, told AFP on Wednesday that the court had banned him from handling the rape case and withdrew his license to practice law because he challenged the verdict.
He said he has also been summoned by the ministry of justice to appear before a disciplinary committee in December.
Lahem said the move might be due to his criticism of some judicial institutions, and "contradicts King Abdullah's quest to introduce reform, especially in the justice system."
King Abdullah last month approved a new body of laws regulating the judicial system in Saudi Arabia, which rules on the basis of sharia, or Islamic law.
Update: Jushuapundit reports on the Saudi attempt to try to justify verdict by focusing on the girl's meeting with a non relative male and a warning:
In a statement the mis-named Saudi Justice ministry said:"We would like to state that the system has ensured them the right to object to the ruling and to request an appeal," the statement continued,"without resorting to sensationalism through the media that may not be fair or may not grant anyone any rights, and instead may negatively affect all the other parties involved in the case."
In other words, keep your mouth shut this time, sweetie or you'll get even worse.
Absolutely appalling...but then, that's the wahabi culture the Saudis are spending millions to import to the West - with our tacit consent.
If only it would not have been so!
Where is the Outrage over Saudi abuses?
"The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind." - Bob Dylan