Gang-rape case roils Saudi legal system

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 the suspects received.

The story of “the Girl of Qatif,” as the teenager has been called by the press 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 no defense attorneys are present sometimes.

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 gang-rape case did, or three men who were convicted of raping a boy. In another case, 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 said she was attacked and raped by a group of other men.

In the sleepy, Shi’ite village of al-Awwamiya on the outskirts of the eastern city of Qatif, an Associated Press reporter met the 19-year-old for an interview. She spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her privacy; the AP does not identify rape victims unless they ask to be named.

’Big shock’

Her hands tremble, her dark brown eyes are lifeless. She said 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 she was in the car with the student, the woman 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 purportedly raped her friend as well.

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 one to five years in prison and 80 to 1,000 lashes, the woman said. The 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,” the woman said. The sentence was handed down as part of the rape trial. Lashes usually are spread over several days, dealt about 50 at a time.

The sentences have yet to be carried out, but the punishments ordered have caused an uproar.

’My heart is with you’

“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-Faqih 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 Shariah, or Islamic law. Judges — appointed by the king on the recommendation of the Supreme Judicial Council — have complete discretion to set sentences, except in cases in which Shariah specifies a punishment, such as capital crimes.

That means no two judges likely would 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 one to two years in prison and 300 lashes each. In contrast, another judge sentenced at least four men to between six and 12 years in prison 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 Mr. 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.

Woman forced to divorce

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 revealed in press reports, had been married for more than 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 regarding 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 judges asked for her statement, then heard the statement from the seven defendants in the first session, the woman said. In the second session, about a month later, the judges pronounced their verdict. It was not known whether there were other sessions she did not attend.

Judges in the case referred the AP to the Justice Ministry when asked about the sentencing. The ministry said yesterday that rape could not be proved. There were no witnesses and the men had recanted confessions made during interrogation, the ministry said. It said the verdict cannot be appealed.

Shariah allows defendants to deny signed confessions, said 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 a deep darkness where everything is possible,” Mr. al-Gassem said.