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RIYADH - SAUDI Arabia's King Abdullah has pardoned a teenage girl sentenced to six months in jail and 200 lashes after being gang raped, the Al-Jazirah newspaper reported yesterday.
The ruling against the 19- year-old girl in this ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom had attracted widespread international condemnation, including from human rights groups.
The Arabic-language daily said it was informed of the royal pardon by its own sources.
But in the same article, Justice Minister Abdullah Mohammed al-Sheik said the pardon did not mean the King doubted the judges. He had instead acted in the 'interests of the people'.
'The King always looks into alleviating the suffering of the citizens when he becomes sure these verdicts will leave psychological effects on the convicted people, though he is convinced and sure the verdicts were fair,' Al-Jazirah quoted him as saying.
The girl, who was 18 at the time she was raped, was attacked at knife-point by seven men after she was found in a car with a male companion who was not a relative, in breach of strict Saudi law.
In October last year, a judge sentenced her to 90 lashes for being with the man - a taboo in the conservative kingdom which imposes segregation of the sexes.
She appealed, but the court instead raised the sentence to 200 lashes and a six-month jail term.
The rapists were sentenced to one to five years in jail, but those terms were raised last month to between two and nine years.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
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