BERLIN (AFP) — Thirty-five German women lawmakers published an open letter to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Friday to protest at the sentencing of a Saudi gang rape victim to six months in jail and 200 lashes.
"We call on King Abdullah to intervene to ensure that the verdict is withdrawn," the cross-party group of lawmakers said in a statement.
German Research Minister Annette Schavan of the conservative Christian Democratic Union was among the signatories.
"The verdict has perfidiously turned the victim into a criminal," the lawmakers said.
The 19-year-old girl was attacked at knifepoint 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, and was initially sentenced last year to 90 lashes for being with the man.
Following her appeal, the court ordered her punishment should be increased to the current sentence, a decision which has attracted international condemnation from human rights groups and Western governments.
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