Friday 16 November 2007

Saudi justice: punish the victim

200 lashes and a six-month prison term. That's the penalty for rape in Saudi Arabia...for the victim. According to a BBC report:

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 19-year-old woman, who is from Saudi Arabia's Shia minority, was gang-raped 14 times in an attack in the eastern province 18 months 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. The rapists have since had their prison terms doubled, but the sentences are still low considering that they could have faced the death penalty.

Last month Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells called for Britain and Saudi Arabia to work more closely together on a basis of their 'shared values'.

1 comment:

Roland Dodds said...

Shared values? Like both peoples actually like to breathe air?