Saudi king pardons rape victim sentenced to 200 lashes

KEEPING MUM? The victim had been sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in jail for speaking out to the media.

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New Delhi: The King of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah has pardoned the female rape victim who was sentenced to 200 lashes.

Saudi Justice Minister Abdullah bin Muhammed al-Sheik told al-Jazirah newspaper that the pardon does not mean the king doubted the country's judges, but instead acted 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-Jazirah quoted al-Sheik as saying

The 19-year-old Saudi Arabian woman had been sentenced to more than double- 200 lashes and six months in jail for speaking out to the media regarding the rape.

In Saudi Arabia, women cannot travel without the permission from a male relative.

And the victim had met a male friend to retrieve some photographs the night she was raped. Both her friend and her were abducted and seven men raped her.

“The first man with the knife raped me. I was destroyed. The fifth and sixth ones were the most abusive. After the seventh one, I couldn't feel my body anymore,” said the victim.

The woman's original trial took place last year. Her attackers got sentences ranging from 10 months to five years in jail.

And the Saudi judge determined the victim was also to blame--for illegally "mingling."

“Well! What this case boils down to and we can see it in what the judge has said to her is this lady should not have been where she was at the time. She somehow facilitated what happened to her, she was responsible for what happened to her,” Human Rights Watch, Saudi Arabia, Christopher Wilcke said.

The woman's attorney, Abdulrahman al-Lahim had appealed, but for his trouble he has been stripped of his law license.

The judge had ruled this out because his client spoke to the media---He said that her sentence would double from 90 lashes -- to six months 'prison plus those 200 lashes with a bamboo reed.