 Clinton: Saudi rape verdict 'an outrage'
I have heard different accounts of how this situation came about... however, I am interested to hear your opinions on the subject. I've heard the victim was riding in a car with a stranger and now also that she was simply abducted from the mall. Either way, this woman's life is certainly ruined as she will surely never be "accepted" as "normal" again within her culture and the pain and suffering from such a travesty will always be with her. Should additional punishment be necessary?
~ Eliyahna, TorahWomen.com Administrator
(CNN) -- U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has joined international condemnation of the sentence handed out to a Saudi rape victim: 200 lashes and six months in prison. Labeling it "an outrage", Sen. Clinton urged the U.S. government to protest the decision. "The Bush administration has refused to condemn the sentence and said it will not protest an internal Saudi decision," the Democratic presidential frontrunner said in a statement. "I urge President Bush to call on King Abdullah to cancel the ruling and drop all charges against this woman." The sentence resulted from an incident in March 2006, when the woman, then aged 18 and engaged to be married, and an unrelated man, were abducted from a mall in Qatif, Saudi Arabia by a group of seven men. She was later raped. In October, the men were convicted and sentenced to between two and nine years in prison for the assault. She was convicted of violating the kingdom's strict Islamic law by not having a male guardian with her at the mall. The woman was originally sentenced in October 2006 to 90 lashes -- but when she appealed that sentence, the court more than doubled it to 200 lashes. A court source told Arab News, an English-language Middle Eastern daily newspaper, that the woman's sentence was increased after the woman spoke to the media about the case. But a Saudi Justice Ministry statement said the permanent committee of the Supreme Judicial Council recommended an increased sentence for the woman after further evidence against her came to light when she appealed her original sentence. The case has drawn a strong reaction from Washington where State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said U.S. officials had "expressed astonishment" at the sentence, though not directly to Saudi officials. He added that "it is within the power of the Saudi government to take a look at the verdict and change it." Earlier the husband of the victim said his wife is "a crushed human being," and blamed one judge with a personal vendetta -- and not the Saudi judicial system -- for treating her as a criminal. But he said Saudi society was respectful of women and he had faith that his wife would get justice. "From the outset, my wife was dealt with as a guilty person who committed a crime," said her 24-year-old husband. "She was not given any chance to prove her innocence or describe how she was a victim of multiple brutal rapes." The husband, who asked not to be named, spoke to CNN Senior Arab Affairs Editor Octavia Nasr. He spoke in Arabic and Nasr translated his words into English. His wife, who he said is "a quiet, simple person who does not bother anyone," is in ill health and too fragile to speak about the case, he said. As her guardian under Saudi law, he is standing up for her publicly. The attack, trial and sentencing have taken a heavy toll on his wife's health, which was already poor, he said. She suffers from anemia, a blood disorder , and asthma, he said. She will have surgery next month to remove her gallbladder. "Since the attack, she's been suffering from severe depression." The events ended her pursuit of an education beyond high school, he said. "Her situation keeps changing from bad to worse," he said. "You could say she's a crushed human being." "The court proceedings were like a spectacle at times," he said. "The criminals were allowed in the same room as my wife. They were allowed to make all kinds of offensive gestures and give her dirty and threatening looks." Of the three judges at the trial, one of them "was mean and from the beginning dealt with my wife as a guilty person who had done something wrong," he said. "Even when he pronounced the sentence he said to her, 'You were involved in a suspicious relationship and you deserve 200 lashes for that'," he said. Her lawyer, Abdulrahman al-Lahim, was dismissed by the judge after the two clashed in court, he said. "The judge took things personally and was reacting to our lawyer, who's a known human rights activist," he said. "The judge undermined the lawyer, decreased his role and then dismissed him from the case altogether. The judge simply couldn't work with our lawyer. "We were shocked when the judgment changed and her sentence was doubled," the husband said, blaming the increase on a judge pursuing "a personal vendetta." "We were looking for pardon; instead she got double the whipping and more jail time." "If this sentence is based on the law then I would've welcomed it," he said. "But it is harsh and the Saudi society I know and belong to is more sympathetic than that. I do not expect such harshness from Saudis, but rather compassion and support of the victim and her rights." Saudi society, he said, is "is very respectful to women in general." "If a woman raises her voice to a man in public, it would be very unusual for the man to respond or argue," he said. "When a woman enters a bank for instance and there is no women's section, all the men make way for the woman to go ahead of them and get her business first. I would think that putting seven men in jail for rape shouldn't be difficult." Despite the treatment given his wife by the Saudi judicial system, he believes his society respects human rights and he is optimistic about the future. "Through this case, as a citizen and stemming from my sense of security and patriotism, I believe in the future... And I have faith and trust in the system," he said. But the case has sparked international media scrutiny of the Saudi legal system. Lamri Chirouf, director of Middle East Research for Amnesty International, said: "There is no doubt that this is a direct result of the severe discrimination to which women is subjected in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia ... which includes at the heart of it denial of the right of the freedom of movement. "Human rights are universal values, they're shared by all human beings. They're not to stop at frontiers, so they should be the concern of everyone." Human Rights Watch said it has called on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah "to immediately void the verdict and drop all charges against the rape victim and to order the court to end its harassment of her lawyer." The man and woman were attacked after they met in Qatif on the kingdom's Persian Gulf coast, so she could retrieve an old photograph of herself from him, according to al-Lahim. Citing phone records from the police investigation, al-Lahim said the man was trying to blackmail his client. He noted the photo she was trying to retrieve was harmless and did not show his client in any compromising position. Al-Lahim said the man tried to blame his client for insisting on meeting him that day. It is illegal for a woman to meet with an unrelated male under Saudi's Islamic law. Al-Lahim has been ordered to attend a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Justice next month, where he faces a possible three-year suspension and disbarment, according to Human Rights Watch. He told CNN he has appealed to the Ministry of Justice to reinstate his law license and plans to meet with Justice Minister Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Ibrahim Al Al-Sheikh. "Currently she doesn't have a lawyer, and I feel they're doing this to isolate her and deprive her from her basic rights," he said. "We will not accept this judgment and I'll do my best to continue representing her because justice needs to take place." He said the handling of the case is a direct contradiction of judicial reforms announced by the Saudi king earlier this month. "The Ministry of Justice needs to have a very clear standing regarding this case because I consider this decision to be judiciary mutiny against the reform that King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz started and against Saudi women who are being victimized because of such decisions," he said. Under law in Saudi Arabia, women are subject to numerous restrictions, including a strict dress code, a prohibition on driving and a requirement that they get a man's permission to travel or have surgery. Women are also not allowed to testify in court unless it is about a private matter that was not observed by a man, and they are not allowed to vote. The Saudi government recently has taken some steps toward bettering the situation of women in the kingdom, including the establishment earlier this year of special courts to handle domestic abuse cases, adoption of a new labor law that addresses working women's rights and creation of a human rights commission. CNN's Octavia Nasr and Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.
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