CAIRO -- Egyptian Raouf Amin languishes in a Saudi jail and is punished with 70 lashes once a week. Cut off from his family in Egypt, the 52-year-old doctor was convicted for prescribing painkillers to a Saudi princess that led to her addiction.
An appeal court judge ruled that Amin will be beaten weekly until he has received 1,500 lashes - and then he'll spend another 14 years behind bars.
The judge doubled the original punishment meted out to him a little over one year ago in the lower court where Amin was sentenced to a seven-year jail term with 750 lashes.
31 comments
Why are we allied with these ... words are lacking ... again?
Oh, right, because our government's been in the pay of the oil companies for ages, so we haven't switched to renewable energy. Frankly, even if Obama WERE a socialist Muslim pro-gay theocrat (ignoring the fact that that's CONTRADICTORY) I'd *still* prefer him to George Oilwell Bush.
What Old Viking said, the Saudis are our allies!
Never mind that if Iraq did half the stuff to their people that the Saudis do they'd suffer 'shock and awe' of Biblical proportions. No, the Saudis have loads of oil and they're the West's friends so whatever systematic persecution and torture they carry out is their own business entirely, yes sirree!
Hellboy wrote
Don't see how this is religious.
Courts in Saudi Arabia are by definition religious, they operate under Shari'ah law. From their constitution:
Article 38 [Punishment, nulla poena] Penalties shall be personal and there shall be no crime or penalty except in accordance with the Shari'ah or organizational law. There shall be no punishment except for acts committed subsequent to the coming into force of the organizational law.
Imagine not being able to hold any office in the US law system unless you're a Fundamentalist Southern Baptist, that's how it works over there.
I'm actually amazed he wasn't stoned to death because he touched a woman he wasn't married to.
The woman on the other hand, well I guess daddy likes her. Or else she'd be stoned right along with him.
@solomongrundy: exactly. I've found our alliance with Saudi Arabia distasteful ever since I learned how women were treated there (false accusations, blaming rape victims, mutilations...)
I don't think there's really anything we can *do* about it, but we shouldn't be supporting it.
In a nearby country, a similar doctor is probably getting lashed for withholding painkillers from a princess who doesn't want to become addicted to them.
Allies indeed. >:(
Where's my damn energy independence?
dg wrote
I don't think there's really anything we can *do* about it, but we shouldn't be supporting it.
True. If there's one thing to learn from Iran it's that you can't force democracy at gunpoint onto people who aren't ready for it. A hundred years ago women in the west didn't have the vote, two hundred years ago slavery was accepted as fair and Biblical . Things change due to internal pressures and it will be women who bring down Islamic fundamentalism. It won't be easy, fast or painless but it will happen.
I'm almost shocked that they didn't stone the woman to death for becoming addicted.
Princess, remember? In wacko despotisms and theocracies, the assholes in charge are usually immune to the effects of the rampaging mobs and enforcers they allow to trample on everyone else. Even in quite progressive nations, you can still usually expect disproportionately harsh treatment if you commit any kind of crime or misdeed against, say, a relation of the head of state; and said relation can expect similarly lenient treatment for anything they do.
@Brain_In_A_Jar: True, but even the high-ranking women can be exposed to pretty horrible shit. Those "Princess Sultana" books talk about that.
What pretext can they possibly use to justify punishing a doctor for prescribing medication???
And I really don't understand why Egypt doesn't do something...
The Americans are allied with these idiots.
The Wahabi interpretation of Sharia law, is without question the worst interpretation possible.
The whole House of Al Saud is Wahabi, and they hold every position of power in the country.
Wait, can the Saudi's arrest someone from another country or was this guy actually living there to send money to his family?
Fucking bunch of vindictive, blood-crazed barbarians the Saudi royalty are.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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