Woman Letter to King Gets Her Lashes and Prison Time
SIA News
January 29, 2010… A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a Saudi mother of three to 300 lashes for visiting government departments without a male guardian escort and for filing a complaint to the Saudi King against government officials for corruption and misuse of power, Saudi daily Okaz reported yesterday.
The hearing, which took place in the town of Al Rass north of Riyadh, convicted Sawsan Malik Zakrya Salim, 32, to flogging 300 times, and one and a half years in prison, without possibility of parole. Her husband, Saleh Al Thawab, was also previously thrown in prison by local officials. Al Thawab told Okaz that his wife is currently in the Central Prison in Buraydah, also north of the capital, with her infant child, Al Jawhra.
The judge responsible for Salim’s case, Sheikh Habib Abdul Al Asqah from Al Rass court, engaged in illegal sexual relations in July 2008 with an Indonesian woman identified as his sister’s maid. Not only is Al Asqah a married man, but he also paid the woman in exchange for the encounter. The incident was recorded on video and widely spread on the internet.
Two years later, Al Asqah has yet to be prosecuted for his actions, which are punishable by death according to the Saudi legal system. He remains an active court judge.
According to a letter written to King Abdullah by Salim, exclusively obtained by SIA News, Al Asqah attempted to seduce Salim when she visited the court for a legal matter. The charges against Salim appear to have originated from this event.
Last Wednesday, Saudi daily Al Watan reported the court sentence of a black Saudi teenage girl in Jubail to 90 lashes – inside her school and before her classmates – and two months in prison, after the school principal discovered a camera-equipped cell phone in her possession. Saudi law prohibits the use of these devices inside girl schools.
Under the autocratic rule of the Saudi monarchy, Saudi citizens are subject to blatant human rights violations enforced by an oppressive binding legal system based on Shari’a law, exclusively controlled by Wahhabi and Salafi clerics. The Saudi court system prohibits the employment of non-Salafi citizens, especially judges. Saudi Arabia leads the international community in the use of medieval execution techniques of condemned prisoners, such as torture-by-flogging, public beheadings, and public crucifixions. Two people were openly crucified in 2009, including one in Riyadh during President Barak Obama’s visit.
US Support
Saudi Arabia is the primary U.S. ally in the Arab world. U.S. officials have repeatedly praised Saudi King Abdullah for alleged reforms, while overlooking the country’s poor record of human rights abuses, among the worst in the world.
During a July 2009 Press Conference between Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Clinton described the U.S.-Saudi relationship as one of “mutual respect and mutual interest.”
Clinton commended Saudi Arabia on its reform policies, stating, “I’m also personally very pleased by the steps that his majesty, the King, is taking to implement reforms, including appointing the Kingdom’s first female official as Deputy Minister of Education. The work that the King is doing on educational reform and judicial system reform…is very important.”
A censored version of the tape of Habib Abdul Al Asqah with the Indonesian woman can be viewed on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7fICfTF1V0 |
