No statement from Downer on rape case

[Collo]

No statement from Downer on rape case



By Mark Schliebs | November 21, 2007

THE Australian Government has yet to state whether or not it opposes the sentence of 200 lashes handed to Saudi Arabian woman after she was gang-raped.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who is in Singapore today, has yet to issue a formal statement about the 19-year-old Shi'ite Muslim woman?s sentence.

A spokesman for Mr Downer said the minister may have mentioned the matter in an interview before he flew out of the country, but was not sure who to or when.

Staff at Prime Minister John Howard?s office did not immediately return calls from NEWS.com.au.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack refused to condemn the sentence, nor take any action about it, at a press conference today.

Instead, Mr McCormack said that the sentence was a ?surprise? and that the Bush administration was ?astonished? by it.

?It is within (the Saudi Government?s) ability to take a look at this sentence and to make changes in it,? Mr McCormack said in Washington.

?We have expressed our astonishment at such a sentence. I think that when you look at the crime and the fact that now the victim is punished, I think that causes a fair degree of surprise and astonishment.

?But it is within the power of the Saudi Government to take a look at the verdict and change it.?

The woman was raped by a group of seven men last year.

She was originally sentenced to 90 lashes - for travelling in a car of an unrelated male at the time of the rape ? but that was increased to 200 lashes and six months' imprisonment for reportedly trying to influence the courts through the media.

[Collo]

Continuing on:


US: Rape victim's sentence up to Saudis


From correspondents in Washington | November 21, 2007

THE US State Department today voiced its "astonishment" at the sentencing of a Saudi victim of rape to 200 lashes and six months in jail but stopped short of calling for it to be changed.

"I think when you look at the crime and the fact that now the victim is punished, I think that causes a fair degree of surprise and astonishment," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"But it is within the power of the Saudi Government to take a look at the verdict and change it," he said, referring to the case of the 19-year-old woman whose punishment was ordered by a court today after the woman was gang-raped.

Asked if the US government was reluctant to condemn an important Arab ally ahead of a conference aimed at reviving Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, he replied: "No, that's not it at all.

"Look, you have a situation that I think most individuals, for example, in our country, just don't understand. We don't understand how something like this could happen.

"That said, these kinds of decisions are going to have to be decisions that the people of that country - in this case, Saudi Arabia - are going to have to take for themselves," he said.

Fran Townsend, President George W. Bush's adviser on domestic security and anti-terrorism, said on CNN television: "The case is absolutely reprehensible."

But she declined to condemn the Saudi Government, whom she praised for co-operation in fighting terror groups.

"What I've praised the Saudis for is their counterterrorism co-operation, where it is unprecedented, and we share information that's helped us stop attacks.

"This (rape) case is separate and apart from that. I just don't think there's any explaining it or justifying it," she said.

The woman was initially ordered to undergo 90 lashes for "being in the car of an unrelated male at the time of the rape," the Arab News reported.

The tougher sentence was handed down after Saudi Arabia's Higher Judicial Council ordered a retrial after an appeal and a court in the eastern town of Al-Qatif more than doubled the number of lashes to 200.

A court source told the paper that the judges had decided to punish the woman further for "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media".

Saudi Arabia enforces a strict form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism and forbids unrelated men and women from associating with each other, bans women from driving and requires them to cover head-to-toe in public.

Her assailants, six Saudi men, were initially sentenced to between one and five years in jail for the rape.

Their sentences were stiffened to between two and nine years in prison, but they escaped the death penalty.

[kiwi]

Yeah of course he will not speak out,* cough *oil *cough*

[Collo]

What is funny about that is that 90% of our oil comes from the Bass Straight (for the who don't know; between mainland Australia and our island state Tasmania down south) and only a small fraction of 10% is imported. We suck up to the for an entirely different reason!

[kiwi]

Then if thats the case why are we getting hit with massive petrol prices? I know we have two years supply of petrol at any one time. Kinda just proves how much the Howard government is screw us over.

UAE whats there oil, gold and money. Pretty simple choices.

[Collo]

The reason we are hitting the prices are that the profits are being diverted into more productive means and I have a feeling that these prices won't drop dramatically if there is a change of government in the near future

[kiwi]

No funds are been stored down the back of the couch thats where he found the 36 billion dollars remember.

I don't believe for one second the prices are required to be so high. If funds are needed money set aside for stupid sporting events can be used. And money that the governments wastes on bring in the outsiders should be stopped.

Its a just a rip off.

[sniper]

Whoo Hoo people, just think a minute....What gives us the right to tell another c\ountries judicial system what to do...we cannt   also the petrol price is fixed or set by pte contractors

[kiwi]

Its called Human Rights and yes we can stick our noses in.

Its about time more people did.

Would you walk away from a woman being bashed in front of you and say well not my side of the street doesn't matter.