King Abdullah reportedly has pardoned the young rape victim whose sentence of 200 lashes created a furor in much of the world. It appears that many of the King's own Saudi subjects were outraged and that his country suffered international embarrassment. The details now are familiar. A young, married woman sat in a car with a former boyfriend to retrieve a photograph. They were discovered by seven men who raped them both at knife-point. A hard-line Islamic court sentenced both the criminals and the victims—giving the woman 90 lashes for being along with a man who was not her husband. When her lawyer appealed, the court doubled her sentence. Jeffrey Fleishman is Cairo Bureau Chief for the Los Angeles Times.
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