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Rape case roils Saudi legal system

By DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press Writer Tue Nov 21, 4:49 PM ET

AL-AWWAMIYA, Saudi Arabia - When the teenager went to the police a few months

ago to report she was gang-raped by seven men, she never imagined the judge

would punish her and that she would be sentenced to more lashes than one of

her alleged rapists received.

The story of the Girl of Qatif, as the alleged rape victim has been called by

the media here, has triggered a rare debate about Saudi Arabia's legal system,

in which judges have wide discretion in punishing a criminal, rules of evidence

are shaky and sometimes no defense lawyers are present.

The result, critics say, are sentences left to the whim of judges. These

include one in which a group of men got heavier sentences for harassing women

than the men in the Girl of Qatif rape case or three men who were convicted of

raping a boy. In another, a woman was ordered to divorce her husband against

her will based on a demand by her relatives.

In the case of the Girl of Qatif, she was sentenced to 90 lashes for being

alone in a car with a man to whom she was not married a crime in this

strictly segregated country at the time that she was allegedly attacked and

raped by a group of other men.

In the sleepy, Shiite village of al-Awwamiya on the outskirts of the eastern

city of Qatif, the 19-year-old is struggling to forget the spring night that

changed her life. An Associated Press reporter met her in a face-to-face

interview. She spoke on condition of anonymity to protect her privacy; the AP

does not identify rape victims unless they ask to be named.

Her hands tremble, her dark brown eyes are lifeless. Her sleep is interrupted

by a replay of the events, which she describes in a barely audible whisper.

That night, she said, she had left home to retrieve her picture from a male

high school student she used to know. She had just been married but had not

moved in with her husband and did not want her picture to remain with the

student.

While the woman was in the car with the student, she said, two men intercepted

them, got into the vehicle and drove the couple to a secluded area where the

two were separated. She said she was raped by seven men, three of whom also

allegedly raped her friend.

In a trial that ended in November in which the prosecutor asked for the death

penalty for the seven men four of the men received between one and five years

in prison plus 80 to 1,000 lashes, said the woman. Three others are awaiting

sentencing. Neither the defendants nor the plaintiffs retained lawyers, as is

common here.

"The big shock came when the judge sentenced me and the man to 90 lashes each,"

said the woman. The sentence was handed down as part of the rape trial. Lashes

are usually spread over several days, dealt around 50 at a time.

The sentences have yet to be carried out, but the punishments ordered have

caused an uproar.

"Because I could make no sense (of the sentence) and became in dire need of

patience, I muttered after I read the verdict against the Girl of Qatif: 'My

heart is with you,'" wrote Fatima al-Faqeeh in a column in Al-Watan newspaper.

Justice in Saudi Arabia is administered by a system of religious courts

according to the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law. Judges

appointed by the king on the recommendation of the Supreme Judicial Council

have complete discretion to set sentences, except in cases where Sharia

outlines a punishment, such as capital crimes.

That means no two judges would likely hand down the same verdict for similar

crimes. A rapist, for instance, could receive anywhere from a light or no

sentence to death, depending on the judge.

Saudis are urging the Justice Ministry to clarify the logic behind some

rulings. In one recent case, three men convicted of raping a 12-year-old boy

received sentences of between one and two years in prison and 300 lashes each.

In contrast, another judge sentenced at least four men to between six and 12

years imprisonment for fondling women in a tunnel in Riyadh.

Saleh al-Shehy, a columnist for Al-Watan, asked Justice Minister Abdullah

Al-Sheik to explain why the boy's rapists got a lighter sentence than the men

in last year's sexual harassment case.

"I won't ask you my brother, the minister, if you find the ruling satisfactory

or not," wrote al-Shehy. "I will ask you, 'Do you think it satisfies God?"

"Please explain to us how one judge ruled and how the other ruled? What

evidence did the one rely on and what proof did the other use?" he added.

The broad discretion judges enjoy have been a disaster for Fatima, another

Saudi woman. She suddenly found herself divorced from her husband, Mansour

al-Timani, after her half-brothers went to a judge and told him their sister

had married beneath her.

Fatima, whose full name has not been given in media reports, had been married

for over three years and was pregnant with her second child when the judge

declared the marriage void in July 2005.

Today, Fatima sits in jail with her 11-month-old son her 4-year-old daughter

was recently freed rather than return to the custody of her family as the

judge decreed.

The problems over sentencing are exacerbated by loose trial rules, in which

physical evidence sometimes is not presented.

The Girl of Qatif said her trial had two sessions. The three trial judges asked

for her statement, then heard the statement from the seven defendants in the

first court session, according to the woman. In the second, about a month

later, the judges pronounced their verdict. It was not known if there were

other sessions she did not attend.

Judges in the case referred The Associated Press to the Justice Ministry when

asked about the sentencing. The ministry, in a statement Tuesday, said rape

could not be proved. There were no witnesses and the men had recanted

confessions they made during interrogation, the statement said. It said the

verdict cannot be appealed.

Sharia allows defendants to deny signed confessions, according to Abdul-Aziz

al-Gassem, a lawyer who was not involved in the case. They still get punished

if convicted, but the verdict is lighter.

"The lack of transparency in the investigation, the trial and the sentencing,

plus the difficulties that journalists have to get access lead to deep a

darkness where everything is possible," said al-Gassem.