RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Dec. 17, 2007
Saudi King Pardons Rape Victim
Woman Sentenced To 200 Lashes Spared Further Punishment Amid International Outcry
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The victim in the case, not shown, was known only as the "Girl of Qatif" after her hometown in eastern Saudi Arabia. The woman was in a car with a high school friend in 2006 when they were attacked and raped by seven men. (AP)
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Outrage over the sentence prompted unusually strong comments from President Bush, who said that if the same thing had happened to one of his daughters, he would be "angry" at a government that didn't protect the victim. The White House called the sentence "outrageous."
In past weeks, Saudi officials have bristled at the criticism of what they consider an internal affair - but also appeared wary of hurting their image in the United States.
Bush's National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the White House thinks the Saudi king "he made the right decision" by pardoning the woman.
With the pardon, King Abdullah appeared to be aiming at relieving the pressure from the United States without being seen to criticize Saudi Arabia's conservative legal system, a stronghold of powerful clerics adhering to the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam.
Justice Minister Abdullah bin Mohammed al-Sheik said the pardon reported by Saudi media Monday does not mean the king doubted the country's judges, but that he was acting in the "interests of the people."
"The king always looks into alleviating the suffering of the citizens when he becomes sure that these verdicts will leave psychological effects on the convicted people, though he is convinced and sure that the verdicts were fair," al-Sheik said, according to the Al-Jazirah newspaper.
"Certainly, we're pleased that that action occurred," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said. "I think everyone was rather astonished by the initial verdict and I hope this puts this case to rest. We're glad that this particular case has been dealt with and that the king has taken the actions that he has."
The victim - known only as the "Girl of Qatif" after her hometown in eastern Saudi Arabia - was in a car with a man in 2006 when they were attacked and raped by seven men.
She was initially sentenced in November 2006 to several months in prison and 90 lashes for being alone in a car with a man with whom she was neither related nor married, a violation of the kingdom's strict segregation of the sexes.
The woman, who was 19 at the time of the rape, has said she met the man to retrieve a picture of herself from him because she had recently married.
The seven men who were convicted of raping both the girl and the man were initially sentenced to jail terms from 10 months to five years. Their sentences were increased to between two and nine years after the appeal.
The case sparked increased international outcry recently after the court more than doubled the sentence last month to 200 lashes and six months prison in response to her appeal. Joining the U.S. criticism, Canada called the ruling barbaric.
Earlier this month, Mr. Bush expressed his anger over the sentencing.
"My first thoughts were these," Mr. Bush said. "What happens if this happens to my daughter? How would I react? And I would have been - I'd of been very emotional, of course. I'd have been angry at those who committed the crime. And I'd be angry at a state that didn't support the victim."
The controversy erupted as the United States was trying to ensure Saudi Arabia's participation in the November Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md. - which the kingdom attended.
In the U.S. ahead of the conference, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal was visibly irritated when he was asked about the case by journalists. He said that the storm being raised over it was outrageous, but also promised the sentence would be reviewed.
Last month, the Ministry of Justice stood by the verdict, saying that "charges were proven" against the woman for having been in a car with a man who was not her relative.
The ministry implied the victim's sentence was increased because she spoke out to the press. "For whoever has an objection on verdicts issued, the system allows an appeal without resorting to the media," the ministry said in a statement last month.
Al-Sheik said Abdullah was the only official who could issue a pardon, and he did so despite the government's view that the Saudi legal system was "honest" and "fair."
"The king's order consolidates and confirms what is known about the Islamic courts," al-Sheik told Al-Jazirah. "Efficient judges look into different cases and issue their just verdicts and those convicted have the right to appeal."
Attempts to reach the woman's lawyer by telephone went unanswered Monday.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 167 Commentscome on agents get on her side.
Posted by eggy1620 at 08:36 AM : Dec 17, 2007
I fear you are probably very right.
And the girl was to receive 200 lashes and 6 mths. in prison for being alone in a car. The scales of justice are warped here even with the kings pardon.
A total of 64% of American voters say that President George W. Bush has abused his powers as president. Of the 64%, 14% (9% of all voters) say the abuses are not serious enough to warrant impeachment, 33% (21% of all voters) say the abuses rise to the level of impeachable offenses, but he should not be impeached, and 53% (34% of all voters) say the abuses rise to the level of impeachable offenses and Mr. Bush should be impeached and removed from office.
A total of 70% of American voters say that Vice President *** Cheney has abused his powers as vice president. Of the 70%, 26% (18% of all voters) say the abuses are not serious enough to warrant impeachment, 13% (9% of all voters) say the abuses rise to the level of impeachable offenses, but he should not be impeached, and 61% (43% of all voters) say the abuses rise to the level of impeachable offenses and Mr. Cheney should be impeached and removed from office.
AMERICAN REAEARCH GROUP
Posted by FlangeSqueal at 09:02 AM : Dec 17, 2007
yes, she is going to do a role reversal on us and make the USA, Female dominated, then they will be whipping your rear for daring to look at a woman that was not related to you.
The line about alleviating punishment if they think it will cause psychological problems later for the victim is a lie.
So how many women or men who are raped, don''t have psychological problems already. I mean, is this woman facing a stoning when she gets out of prison? Think her "oh so Saudi indoctrinated husband or family will want her? Instead of invading and destroying Iraq for their oil--we should have leveled Saudi Arabia and gotten rid of their ridiculous monarchy!!!!!
It you had said we invaded the wrong country I might have agreed. I remember years ago a Saudi sheik hung his own grandaughter because she was having *** with an Arab boy. Four Korean workers were stoned to death in Saudi Arabia because they used an Arabian prostitute. But the line needed to be drawn somewnere, so Bush chose Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe not the best location, that is arguable. On the other hand it beats drawing the line in the sands of say, Kansas, for instance.
Posted by ksjeff at 08:49 AM : Dec 17, 2007
No. We buy OIL from these sickos--and from that oil , we make gasoline, plastics, etc. for our own use.
Oh, you meant King Abdullah... sorry.
Regards,
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Posted by Nancy_Naive
Are you condoning the unequal punishment to the men vs the woman in this? Libby has not been pardoned, and perhaps the scales of justice in our nation will find their balance. It should not stop us from commenting on injustices in the world.
I take that someone has "legal custody" of the retarded woman. Is this person not responsible for her well being? A travesty of justice yes.
I am not against abortion for health reasons, I am against abortion for "Birth control" Let the lazy jerks (male & female) take action before getting in bed, not after.
What''s this? Didn''t get enough home "skoolin" from your fat mammy?
The whole middle east is lucky to have oil or they''d all be worthless nomads, cannibalizing their children and lying in the sand in prayer to Big Mo!
Regards,
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Posted by Nancy_Naive
Christian???? interpation or misguided interpation? Where did Jesus teach this?
Posted by runningralph at 09:16 AM : Dec 17, 2007
Oh, I don''t know...I live in Kansas and contrary to the view of many here (this is GOP country after all) We are not all moral cowards willing to proxy Iraq so we don''t have to fight them here. There is something honorable about fighting our own wars, using our own people, taking the consequences, and standing up for what we believe instead of forcing our views and war down another country''s throat. Some of us believe,
"We should fight them here, so we do not export the war to any other country over there"
True heros fight their own battles, depraved cowards use others as shields to minimize loss to themselves. Picture a man with a gun aiming to shoot. YOu see it. Who do you look up to more? The victim who tries to fight back, manhandles the shooter and gets a wound or the man who grabs the nearest child as a shield to keep from getting shot?
Even if it means our death, best to go with honor--there is no honor in starting a war and killing people based on lies--and the very fact some are so depraved and craven that "We fight them there so we don''t have to fight them here" can even make sense--tells you how perverted and without honor a portion of our country has become.
Absoposislutely. I agree there
Posted by ToolMangler
When people who should not become parents get pregnant, the abortion will happen. Whether it%u2019s in the 1st trimester, or 10th trimester (that poor little girl found in Galveston Bay), the abortion will happen. Bring back eugenics!
Posted by drivelphobe at 09:27 AM : Dec 17, 2007
Ahhhh, But without oil, most of them would still be ALIVE...or at the very least found a different way to die than the one our greed and lust for what they have has given them. They are unlucky indeed. As unlucky as a 4 year old boy who got air dropped into a NAMBLA convention. (But maybe to you he should be lucky, cuz he will get to try on all kinds of men before he can even read) It''s all about perspective, eh?
Posted by radiob at 09:32 AM : Dec 17, 2007
Jesus never taught it--the idea of religious views as the laws of the land is actually from the Pharisees and Saduccees--and we all know, those two groups pretended to love God , but ultimately hated and denounced Jesus. Because it was never about loving God---it was about the power and rule under the guise of religion.....
eggy, most pregnacys are preventable, they should be prevented, that way, only truly needed abortions would happen.
At least you got the one point correctly. People have twisted the teachings of Jesus into what they perceive them to be not his actual words. Just as extremist have hijacked islam extremist have hijacked Christianity. The difference is here in the good ole USA I can still tell the extremist where the next stop is and to get off the bus.
Posted by pollroller1 at 09:40 AM : Dec 17, 2007
Then either you heard it from a Christian or you are a liar. Muslims do not recognize Jesus as the son of God. To them, he is a prophet who has been elevated to God status by a duped population. Like the Jews--they do not believe Jesus is God''s son. But unlike the Jews, they DO think Jesus is relevant and not just an imposter. (to them, he was a prophet equal to Mohammed) they see Allah or God as the only deity. So if they had screams to go be with anyone, it is doubtful they''d pick a Christian anything--they''d either pick Mohammed or Allah, Himself. LOL
Gee, that''s mighty white of them. Incidentally, did you know that the Clinton library received MILLION$ from the Saudis? Check it out:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/14/AR2007121402124_pf.html
Posted by b-easy63 at 09:37 AM : Dec 17, 2007
Starving to death ''is'' a different way to die.
Posted by b-easy63 at 09:44 AM : Dec 17, 2007
Sorry it''s Muslims who have been duped, they treat their women worse than their livestock. Mohammed was a conman.
Posted by ToolMangler at 09:43 AM : Dec 17, 2007
Are rapes and incest preventable? The fact is, if a woman does not want to grow the seed placed in her, it is best not to force the issue (if you are a woman, draw the line at your own body) the rest of the story and the dilemma belongs to the woman and God.
Also, women who don''t want a baby do not want to incubate and grow it for others, to sell it or pass it around. Strictly from a Darwinian point of view--"Those who elect to minimize the perpetuation of their gene pool through abortion, should be allowed to do so. After all, they know more about what they combined with and what they would produce than any utopian onlooker. Those who are forced to have children they do not want, rarely end up liking them, changing their minds or treating them kindly and many people do not want their genetics being raised by others. So abortion. A personal choice. Meaning not yours to make or mine unless you are part of their gene pool.
Posted by radiob at 09:44 AM : Dec 17, 2007
Good one, FIVES!!!
-Posted by pollroller1 at 09:40 AM : Dec 17, 2007
Wow! Another hater of Christians attempting to bash the faith. This one was really sloppy. Hate to break it to you like this, stupid, but the Saudis are MUSLIMS, not Christians, and only recognize Christ as a prophet and teacher, NOT the Lord.
Posted by radiob at 09:49 AM : Dec 17, 2007
They are too busy trying to run the USA and others off "Their Land" to see that far down the road. when the last ''infidel'' is gone there will be no more Oil. then all they have left are the sand fleas and camels
I am willing to bet that 3/4 ths. of the pregnacy are accidents, meaning the majority of posters were not planned by their parents but yet they were still loved by them. Abortion should not be a method of birth control, it should be used for health reasons and cases of rape. The Chinese, Koreans and the Vietnamese use it as a measure of birth control with mandated abortions.
Sure, you could point out the Salem Witch Trials - but THAT was an aberation from long ago... not mainstream, widely accepted & a part of modern law like you find with these Muslims. The difference is simply a matter of course... but liberals are a bizarro-world kind of people who have mastered the art of denial, fact twisting, and marketing bullsh*t...
While Muslims love to demonstrate for this reason & that... how often have you seen them demonstrate against Islamic radicals & their acts of terror? Don''t give me this, ''it''s just a few bad apples'' b.s. - the feelings of most Muslims relative to terror range from Active participation, to eager moral support, to tacit approval, to apathy (unless of course it''s against fellow Muslims) - only a very small percentage actively condemns acts of terror...
Liberals - traitors to their nation, enemies of Christ
Posted by ToolMangler at 09:46 AM : Dec 17, 2007
As are many other ways--but at least in starving, it would not be because some people from another country did it to them. People who valued a product over humanity, then tried to cloak their acts in decency where there really is none.
Yes it is, but at least with starvation, there is always the possibility of a reprieve--bombs are not so forgiving and even if they do not kill you, they are excruciating. Made even more heinous from the fact that they did not have to be there and those who drop them come from clear across the world and proclaim themselves heros there to bring Democracy.... Can there be anything more galling than dying from meddling by foreigners in a war based on lies?
Ask any Iraqi which they prefer, starvation with other needs met and weeks to go until they die, or for AMericans to come in and bomb them--you''d be surprised how many would take every second they could to stay alive...sans burns and evisceration, please.
Think those who are being bombed are still NOT starving? If so, you have not been reading the IRC reports coming out of Iraq. We have many, many ways of killing and making these people who had done nothing to us suffer. No wonder we think of ourselves as heroes, eh?
Posted by jowand at 09:48 AM : Dec 17, 2007
Perhaps, but no Muslim cries out to be with "Jesus" as they are being burned. (Back to the actual point of my post)
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Posted by dogsoul
Who defended the Saudia''s position? Showing the extremes of a religion is not defending the actions of another.
...NOT!
You and your religion are barbaric! If you didn''t listen to that moron Muhammed, you and your people would not have been left in the stone age!
Listen up. Soon, the world will run out of oil. Then you barbarians can go back to chucking spears in that worthless desert of yours!
Excerpt:
%u201CQ:Is energy independence possible for the U.S.?
A: Not in the foreseeable future - not for decades.
Q: The presidential election is less than a year away. Based on energy policy, whom do you like?
A: None of them particularly. I don''t think anyone has really got a plan, whether in the current administration, in the current Congress, or among the candidates. They''re all taking a simple, relatively short-term view. You''ve got to take a view that you''re going to look at this over 25 years or longer."
The thing is, ALL of us want energy independence, but NO President, GOP or Dem, in my lifetime, has been willing to take that long-term 20+ year view. None. So, we just keep on doing what we''ve been doing. If you take a look at the amount of imported oil that we use daily, the number is staggering. There is simply no technologically easy or fast way to replace all that oil or the energy it represents. None. It%u2019s easy for a person not in the sciences to talk about alternative fuels, but the support and infrastructure is not there. Not even close. This is an overwhelming problem, and most politicians avoid problems of that sort.
Can''t argue with your post. But the problem is, that most abortions are not birth control. Most women who have had a lot of abortions can only claim 3 to 5 in their life time. That is not the number of times they had sexxx and were impregnated, but the number of times whatever method they used... failed. Very few people actually use abortion as birth control--who could afford to? Given as much sexxxx as people have, to be effective, it would have to be used yearly and women would have at least 20 to 30 under each of their belts.
Don''t fall for the propaganda, it IS used too much by some, but it is still their seed, their bodies and their business. If you are not the kind of person that can raise the over 2 million killed in the world, then do not expect the rest of us to shoulder that burden. Abortions have always been around (the Egyptians and others had their own methods) and always will be, the difference is how much each of us think we have sovereignty over others and can dictate what and how they live THEIR lives. And until that baby can survive on its own, it is living only at the behest, grace and forebearance of the female that carries and nurtures it. I''m not opening my womb up for rent--most women aren''t. So for those who do not want what they are growing--abortion. How ever they use it. Probably preferable to what they did to Baby Grace and others (beat to death and stuffed in a box and thrown in the gulf)
bush did practically "pardon" Scooter, didn''t he?
what''s worse the rape of Nation, or that of an individual?
Posted by scurbiedog at 10:08 AM : Dec 17, 2007
According to most reports, she never spoke to the media (she''s in jail and cannot be seen) It was her lawyer who spoke to the media, supposedly on her behalf and spoke about the lenient sentences of the court and his vow to fight on. SHE, was in prison and did not speak. As a result of her Lawyer trying a Western tactic of the trial through public opinion--the judges had to give sterner sentences--but they also were furious, so the "MAN" was disbarred and the girl was given 110 more lashes to go with the 90 she originally received.
Somehow, no matter what---in Saudi Arabia (and maybe other Muslim countries) if a man fvcks up--then blame and punish the woman for his acts....maybe if the men who raped had their privates cut off, maybe if when a man ran his big mouth, HE got 200 lashes, maybe instead of using woman as scapegoats, Islam held them accountable...MAYBE...they would not have self serving, spoiled brats like Bin Laden, who think they can do no wrong and who value neither women, children or humanity. They are raising monsters over there with a monster in charge.
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