Woman who was drugged and raped in Qatar spent three months in prison after being charged with adultery… but rapist escaped jail
The Dutch 22-year-old is due to be deported after being given a one-year prison sentence by the Islamic country suspended for three years
A WOMAN who reported to cops in Qatar that she had been raped spent three months behind bars after being charged with adultery - as her alleged rapist was spared jail.
The Dutch 22-year-old is due to be deported after being given a one-year prison sentence by the Islamic country suspended for three years.
The alleged victim, named only as Laura, was also fined 3,000 Qatari riyals (£600).
Her reported attacker named as Omar Abdullah al-Hasan, will serve no jail time but has been sentenced to 100 lashes for extra-marital sex and 40 for drinking alcohol, before also being expelled form the conservative state.
Hasan will also undergo a medical examination to ensure he is fit enough to with stand his whipping.
Laura, who has been languishing in jail since March 14, said she had gone dancing in a hotel in Doha and realised her drink had been spiked after taking her first sip.
Her lawyer, Brian Lokollo, said the young woman from Utrecht remembers nothing from that point until she woke up in an unfamiliar apartment.
He added: "(She) realised to her great horror, that she had been raped."
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The defendant, however, insists that the sex was consensual and she even asked for money.
Dutch ambassador to Qatar Yvette Burghgraef-van Eechoud, who was present in the packed courtroom, told reporters that the embassy would help Laura to leave Qatar.
"We will do everything to get her out of the country as soon as possible to where she wants to go," Eechoud said.
The envoy added that she expected Laura to leave Qatar, which will host the football World Cup in 2022, within the next few days.
The ambassador added that she had spoken to Laura on Sunday and said that "under the circumstances she was doing fine".
In the Netherlands, Laura's mother said she had not yet spoken to her daughter but was "so happy" at the news of her release.
"I do not know yet when she gets home, but this is not most important," she told the Dutch television NOS website.
"The most important is that she gets home... I am so happy."
It is an offence to drink alcohol or be drunk in public in Qatar, although alcohol is allowed at certain hotels and non-Muslim immigrants can obtain a permit for purchasing alcohol.
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