The men were sentenced to between one and five years imprisonment but the girl and her male companion were also sentenced to 90 lashes. At the appeal hearing the sentences of the rapists were increased to between two and nine year, but the girl and her companion's sentences were also increased to 200 lashes and six months in prison.
According to an Arab News report:-
The Ministry of Justice made its first public statement regarding the second verdict in the so-called “Qatif Girl” rape trial, justifying the decision to punish the victims with lashes and jail time on the basis of “some proved charges.”
. . .
The ministry also said yesterday in its statement that anyone has a right to appeal verdicts, but also warned of “stirring up agitation through the media that may not be objective and cannot grant anyone any right as much as it can negatively affect the other parties involved in the case.”
In other words they fully support the judge's decision to increase the sentences of the girl and her male companion!
They may be able to tell the Saudi public that "we're right and you're wrong" but the rest of the world may not be impressed. I've found this story at the BBC, CNN, the New York Times, Sky News, The Telegraph, here, here, and here and here and here.
I think I've made my point: the entire Western world is pretty disgusted at this case. The King would be well advised to intervene in this case and issue a pardon for this girl. That would at least take the heat out of this issue, even if it would do nothing about the underlying problem with the Saudi justice system.
(Update: In neither of the two blog entries I've made on this case, have I mentioned one crucial fact: this girl is a Shi'a. The judge is almost certainly a Sunni religious scholar and so was almost certainly biased against her from the start.)
This is not the only controversial case that's caused criticism of the Saudi legal system. I have already commented on the case of Fatima and Mansour.
These cases are not isolated incidences; reading today's onlive version of Arab News, I came accross this report. It deals with the case of two members of the Muttawa (the religious police) who (gasp!) are actually being tried for murder after a man died in their custody. According to this report:-
However, according to today's report, the Saudi Judiciary are keeping to their policy of punishing both the criminal and the victim:-Al-Huraisi said: “Everyone in the house, including my elderly father, was arrested and taken to the Oraija commission center,” he said.
The father of the deceased said that commission members continued to beat his handcuffed son, even though he was already covered in blood, until he died at the center.
Meanwhile, a lower court in Riyadh handed sentences to five members of Al-Huraisi’s family for resisting arrest by commission members. Al-Huraisi’s father, Muhammad, 73, was sentenced to two years in jail and 50 lashes; Faisal, a brother of the deceased, who is also blind, was handed a three-month jail sentence; Ismail, another brother, was handed a two-year and eight-month sentence for resisting arrest and possessing alcohol and narcotics; and Ahmed, a nephew of the deceased, was handed a one-year jail sentence.
So a 73 year-old man, who's son was beaten to death in front of his eyes is sentenced to two years in prison and 50 lashes, while a blind brother of the murdered man gets three months in prison!
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