After receiving 75 lashes for religious blasphemy - insulting the companions of Muhammad - Mansour Almaribe is very glad to be home. The 45 year old father of five is a Shiite Muslum who fled Iraq in 1990s and became an Australian citizen. Last year he decided to go to Saudi Arabia to attend the Haj pilgrimage.
Shiite Muslims are a minority in Sunni Saudi Arabia and are often targeted by police and on the 14th November he was arrested in the city of Medina and sentenced to 500 lashes and one year in jail.
Australian officials should be gratified for a job well done because the 500 lashes were reduced to 75 with the promise that they would be administered in such a way that no physical damage would be done to the prisoner and he was allowed to wear a leather jacket. He was then pardoned and released.
A spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd said the government appreciated the leniency granted by the Saudis.
Footnote: Mr Almaribe also said yesterday that he was furious with Canberra for not acting quickly enough and will be suing the government.
No comments:
Post a Comment