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Saudi Rape Victim Pardoned

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By ABDULLAH SHIHRI, The Associated Press

Published: December 18, 2007

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - A woman sentenced to prison and a public lashing after being gang-raped has been pardoned by the Saudi monarch in a case that sparked an international outcry, including rare criticism from the United States, the kingdom's top ally.

The woman, known only as "the Girl of Qatif," was convicted of violating Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic laws against mixing of the sexes because she was in a car with a man she was not related to when the seven men attacked and raped them both in 2006.

The sentence shocked many in the West. In unusually strong criticism of a close ally, President Bush said that if the same thing happened to one of his daughters, he would be "angry at those who committed the crime. And I'd be angry at a state that didn't support the victim."

In past weeks, Saudi officials have bristled at the criticism of what they consider an internal affair - but also appeared wary of hurting their nation's image in the United States.

On Monday, Bush's National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the White House thinks King Abdullah "made the right decision" by pardoning the woman, who was 19 at the time of the attack and is from Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia.

State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said the United States hopes the pardon "will have some broader impact on the way the judiciary might handle cases like this in the future."

The Girl of Qatif, a member of the kingdom's Shiite minority, was attacked in 2006 when she met a high school friend in his car to retrieve a picture of herself from him, because she had recently married. Two men got into the vehicle and drove them to a secluded area where five others waited, and then the woman and her companion were both raped, she said.

In October 2006, she was sentenced to prison and 90 lashes for being alone with a man not related to her. The seven rapists were also convicted.

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