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RAPE Crisis Centre director Eileen Calder has called on MPs in Northern Ireland to contact the Foreign Office urging an immediate rethink on a recent court ruling in Saudi Arabia to inflict 200 lashes on a rape victim.
Mrs Calder said there had to be an emergency meeting called with the Saudi Ambassador over the ruling to publicly flog and imprison the rape victim for six months.
According to CNN, a court in Saudi Arabia increased the punishment for a gang-rape victim after her lawyer won an appeal of the sentence for the rapists.
According to reports, the 19-year-old victim was initially sentenced last year to 90 lashes for meeting with an unrelated male, a former friend from whom she was retrieving photographs.
Meanwhile, the seven rapists, who abducted the pair were said to have received sentences ranging from 10 months to five years in prison.
But the victim's attorney, Abdulrahman al-Lahim, contested the rapists' sentence, increasing it from two to nine years for the defendants.
However, this meant that the victim's sentence was also increased to six months in prison and 200 lashes.
CNN reported that women are subject to numerous restrictions in Saudi Arabia, including a strict dress code, a prohibition against driving and the need for a man's permission to travel or have surgery.
Women are also not allowed to testify in court unless it is about a private matter that was not observed by a man, and they are not allowed to vote.
Last night Ms Calder said she believed that members of parliament will be as outraged by this "barbaric example of how Sharia law treats women, as we and our clients are".
She said: "It is imperative that MPs strive to ensure that the British Government do not follow the cowardly example of the United States whose refusal to condemn the torture of rape victims is appalling.
"It appears that oil rich Arab countries can torture, degrade, imprison and even kill innocent rape victims with impunity.
"Pressure needs to be brought to bear on the Saudis immediately by the international community and MPs in Northern Ireland have a responsibility to reflect the outraged views of their constituents."
Uploaded to Newsletter.co.uk: 21 November 2007 10:35 AM
According to CNN, a court in Saudi Arabia increased the punishment for a gang-rape victim after her lawyer won an appeal of the sentence for the rapists.
According to reports, the 19-year-old victim was initially sentenced last year to 90 lashes for meeting with an unrelated male, a former friend from whom she was retrieving photographs.
Meanwhile, the seven rapists, who abducted the pair were said to have received sentences ranging from 10 months to five years in prison.
But the victim's attorney, Abdulrahman al-Lahim, contested the rapists' sentence, increasing it from two to nine years for the defendants.
However, this meant that the victim's sentence was also increased to six months in prison and 200 lashes.
CNN reported that women are subject to numerous restrictions in Saudi Arabia, including a strict dress code, a prohibition against driving and the need for a man's permission to travel or have surgery.
Women are also not allowed to testify in court unless it is about a private matter that was not observed by a man, and they are not allowed to vote.
Last night Ms Calder said she believed that members of parliament will be as outraged by this "barbaric example of how Sharia law treats women, as we and our clients are".
She said: "It is imperative that MPs strive to ensure that the British Government do not follow the cowardly example of the United States whose refusal to condemn the torture of rape victims is appalling.
"It appears that oil rich Arab countries can torture, degrade, imprison and even kill innocent rape victims with impunity.
"Pressure needs to be brought to bear on the Saudis immediately by the international community and MPs in Northern Ireland have a responsibility to reflect the outraged views of their constituents."
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