Sunday, November 18, 2007

Saudi Arabian "Justice"

There was a truly extraordinary story in yesterday's Guardian. In Saudi Arabia a woman who was repeatedly raped by a gang of seven men, and who had the courage to appeal against their lenient sentences, has had her sentence increased. Yes, amazing isn't it: she was sentenced?!! She faced 90 lashes for the henious crime of riding in a car with a man who is not a relative; and this has now been increased to 200.
Yet it seems that even in a place as miserable and uncivilised as Saudi Arabia there is a glimmer of hope. The victim's lawyer sounds like a brave and decent man. Abdul Rahman al-Lahem is apparently well-known for his work defending women's rights. He has been called an infidel and a "lawyer of homosexuals". In the past he has been jailed and banned from travelling abroad. As a result of the victim's appeal he has been banned from the case and the Ministry of Justice (try not to laugh) have revoked his licence. He is to appear before a disciplinary committee at the Ministry of "Justice" accused of criticising the judiciary and "conducting activist campaigns in the media".

2 Comments:

Blogger Frank Partisan said...

That shows why the US/UK have a double standard toward Islamism and dictatorship.

11:17 pm  
Blogger Politaholic said...

Renegade: Exactly. Yesterday's Guardian reported that 40% of "foreign fighters who entered Iraq to join the insurgency in the last year" were Saudi Arabians. And of course we know that Wahhabism has been spreading its poisonous venom all around the world for years while the Blair/Bush types studiously looked the other way.

8:32 am  

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