And yes, I appreciate fully the absurdity of that headline, but that is the situation.
Saudi King Abdullah has stepped in to pardon a young woman who was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in jail after she was gang-raped by seven men. Initially, the court sentenced her to 90 lashes and three months behind bars for violating a law which forbids a woman from being in the company a man who is not her husband or a blood relative. She appealed that sentence, at which point the court imposed the harsher penalty.
The case became a cause for outrage everywhere except in the Bush administration, where officials from the president on down refused to express a value judgment about it.
Thanfully, for the young woman known as the Girl from Qatif, the king of Saudi Arabia has reportedly demonstrated a greater sense of compassion than our own president.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has pardoned the victim of a gang-rape whose sentencing to 200 lashes caused an international outcry, a Saudi newspaper said on Monday.
The daily al-Jazirah cited Justice Minister Abdullah bin Mohammad al-Sheikh as saying the king alone had the right to issue pardons if it was in the public interest.
The minister did not confirm if the pardon, reported from unnamed sources, had been issued but the newspaper is close to the religious establishment that controls the Justice Ministry.
The Saudi monarch usually issues pardons to mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival which begins on Wednesday, but such announcements are published on the official Saudi Press Agency.
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