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Qatar sends ‘raped’ Libya woman back home: UN official

Despite concerns for her safety, Qatar on Thursday sent back to Libya a woman who accused the soldiers of Libyan leader Moamer Qadhafi of having raped her, UN and US officials said.
Vincent Cochetel, the UNHCR representative in Washington, told AFP that a Qatari military plane flew Iman al-Obeidi to the Libyan port city of Benghazi, which is
held by rebels, and she was now staying there in a hotel.
“She expressed to us her fear of returning to Libya, that there was no question of her returning to Libya,” Cochetel said in French.
“There are people (in Libya) who have an interest in shutting her up… Her fear is well founded in our opinion,” he added.
A Libyan rebel official told AFP last month that Obeidi had escaped from Libya to Qatar with the help of rebels.
Obeidi attracted international media attention when she stormed into the Rixos hotel on March 26, threw open her coat to reveal scars and bruises on her body to expose her ordeal.
But as she screamed: “Film me, film me, show the whole world all they did to me,” she was dragged off by security guards amid scenes of mayhem as journalists were shoved aside in their effort to intervene.
Obeidi said she had been stopped at a Tripoli checkpoint because she was from the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya. “They tied me up and abused me for two days,” she said.
After a petition demanding her release, Obeidi said in telephone interviews that she was freed but not allowed to leave Libya. A doctor had examined her and supported her claims of rape and torture.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the United States is “aware that she’s been returned to Benghazi, and we’re following the case very closely.
And we’re going to make every effort to ensure that she’s safe.” He added: “I think we’re concerned for her safety, given… all that’s happened to her. And we’re going to work to make sure that she’s… kept safe, first and foremost, and that she finds appropriate asylum.”

19:28 | |

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