Manama: A prosecutor in Saudi Arabia is seeking the death penalty for a Saudi man accused of kidnapping, raping and robbing a college student.
The Saudi man, a 25-year-old public employee, has been charged alongside two accomplices in the case that shook Saudi Arabia to the core and sparked angry calls for the most severe punishments.
According to a report by Saudi daily Okaz, the defendant parked his car near a university for girls in the Red Sea city of Jeddah and offered to give a lift to his victim, 21, who was waiting for a taxi.
The girl eventually accepted to be driven to a nearby shopping mall where she could get a taxi to go home.
However, the defendant took a different route and when she protested, he told her he was taking a short cut. She rejected his explanation and asked him to drive her back to her college or to drop her off.
The defendant took her to an abandoned building located in the southern part of the city where his two friends were waiting for him.
The three men forced the girl out of the car and inside the building where they stripped her naked, raped her, took pictures of her with their mobile phones and beat her up.
The three accomplices took away her mobile and money and left her near the building after they asked her to forgive them, the daily reported.
The victim later told the police that the three rapists were high on drugs and that she was emotionally and physically exhausted and did not take the car licence plate numbers.
Medical reports confirmed her statements and her “devastating” emotional state.
The police eventually arrested the three men and following their questioning, the prosecutor charged them.
In his statement, the prosecutor said that the main defendant should be handed the capital punishment for his heinous anti-social behaviour that included kidnapping, raping and stealing while using force against a helpless victim.
The court trial is scheduled to start within days.
