Sawsan Salim Sentenced to 300 Lashes for Complaining

Sawsan Salim was being harassed by local officials, so she went to the government offices in Rass to complain.

As a result, she was sentenced to 300 lashes and 18 months in jail for the “crime” of visiting government offices without a male relative.

In a comically obvious failure of the Saudi “justice” system, one of the judges in the case was Habib Abdullah al Aqsa — the original target of Mrs. Salim’s harassment complaint!

The whole series of nasty events started when Judge Habib Abdullah al Aqsa decided to convince Mrs. Salim to divorce her husband.  Mrs. Salim’s husband was sentenced to prison for being in debt.   That makes it very difficult for him to accompany his wife to the government offices!

So they imprison her husband, harass her to divorce him, and then sentence her to 300 lashes and 18 months in jail for complaining about it without him being present.  Maybe if they released him from prison he could accompany his wife to make complaints.  More likely, the corrupt Saudi judiciary would then sentence both of them to lashes and prison.

King Abdullah has promised to modernize Saudi Arabia and improve the lives of Saudi women.  It seems to me that executing a few Saudi judges for corruption might be a good start.