A rape victim in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in jail last week because she was in an unrelated man’s car at the time of the attack. The sentence is more than double the 90 lashes she was originally sentenced to last year before her lawyer appealed the case. Even 100 lashes can be lethal, therefore the sentence is often staggered over time.
The judges doubled the sentence of the rape victim because they claimed she was trying to use the media to influence them, reports the BBC. Abdulrahman al-Lahem, the woman’s lawyer and well-known human rights activist, is facing a Ministry of Justice disciplinary committee on Dec. 5 for appearing on television and publicly discussing the case. His license to practice law has been suspended.
The seven men convicted of gang-raping the woman were originally sentenced to prison terms ranging from under a year to five years and 80 to 1,000 lashes each. The judges increased the woman’s attackers’ sentences this time to a range of two to nine years in prison.
Media Resources: New York Times 11/16/07; BBC 11/17/07
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