Abdul-Rahman's caseload includes representing Mansour al-Timani and his wife, Fatima, the couple divorced without their knowledge by Fatima's half-brothers, and a rape victim sentenced to 90 lashes. More ridiculous rulings by our "Friend and Ally" are described below. Sharia Alert. "Saudi Lawyer Takes On Religious Court System," by Faiza Saleh Ambah for the Washington Post:
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi human rights lawyer Abdul-Rahman al-Lahem said he had been waiting years for a case like this: A woman and her daughter, both accused of promiscuity, were followed by the morals police as they left a private residence on the outskirts of the capital.
The police, who enforce adherence to Saudi Arabia's strict religious laws, beat up the women's driver and drove off with them locked in the back of the car. When the car broke down half an hour later, the officers abandoned them in the stranded vehicle.
The police assumed that the women had been visiting male friends. But the two had been at the home of female relatives. And unlike the thousands who had previously been intimidated into dropping their grievances, they insisted on taking their kidnappers to court. The case, which goes to trial next week, will give Lahem a chance to finally confront the powerful morals police, whom he considers the country's worst human rights offenders.
Lahem, a 35-year-old father of two, contends that the police oppress people in the name of religion and act as if the law doesn't apply to them. He wants to prove them wrong.
"If we win this case, it will have more of an impact than a dozen lectures or newspaper articles," he said. "It will send a powerful message to them, and to the public, who view men of the cloth as untouchable. It will prove that nobody is above the rule of law."
Over the past three years, Lahem has taken on the country's most controversial and sensitive cases and turned them into high-profile indictments of the justice system. He has been thrown in jail several times and banned from traveling abroad. But he continues to fight what he considers an antiquated judiciary, out of step with basic human rights.
[...]
Lahem's involvement in any case has come to mean trouble, or at least intense scrutiny, for judges across the kingdom.
He took the case of a high school chemistry teacher, Mohammad al-Harbi, who was sentenced last year to 40 months in prison and 750 lashes for "trying to sow doubt" among his students by speaking positively about Judaism and Christianity. King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz pardoned him.
In his Riyadh office, human rights lawyer Abdul-Rahman al-Lahem, right, talks to a man whose mother and sister are suing the country's religious police. "If we win this case," he said, "it will prove that nobody is above the rule of law."
Another client, Rabbah al-Quwai'i, a journalist, was arrested this year for "harboring destructive thoughts" and accused of promoting homosexuality by commenting on Internet forums that it was a genetic predisposition. The case was thrown out of court.
Two factors have worked in Lahem's favor: a reform-minded king and, since Abdullah took control of the country several years ago, a freer press that has helped publicize the lawyer's cases. But Lahem is still up against a deeply traditional justice system and widespread public ignorance about human rights and the rule of law.
Civil rights groups and independent human rights organizations are banned here, and the first of two government-appointed human rights committees was set up only in 2004. Previously, disputes and grievances were addressed by provincial governors at weekly salons or settled out of court by mediators. The governors, mainly princes from the ruling al-Saud family, sometimes set up committees to look into complaints.
Despite laws in place since 2002 protecting suspects' rights to legal counsel and requiring public trials, most trials are held in secret, without defense lawyers.
Defendants often ask Lahem to help after they have gone to court without an attorney and verdicts have been pronounced.
throughout history the worst offenders, and most vicious jurks have been quasilegal groups like the moral police in Saudi Arabia supposedly enforcing a moral code that is unenforceable and like the CIA they figure they are above the law
hey aka, the point is there is no "law" you see, Shari'a is the law and these are its enforcers. Sharia can be enforced by anyone. Indeed a death sentence fatwa can be carried out by any individual muslim....now of course the likes of Harun Yahya will tell us that these were the birthpangs of individual liberty...anyone free to carry out justice. ;)
Of course we won't see him defending the rights of any other faith...there is no other faith-right!
I find myself wondering how much of this is to divert attention away from what really goes on inside Saudi Arabia. Lahem's activities are only tolerated as long as it meets the needs of Saudi royalty and they are not exactly a tolerant government.
Wait, I have a hard time keeping all the bogus stories straight. If the Saudi King is so "reform minded", and if the "vast majority of Muslims" are "moderates", then who is keeping Lahem so busy with all these human rights cases? It's so odd, their leaders are so liberal, and the Muslims are so peaceful, and yet there is so much violence and oppression coming from there. The mind boggles.
Huh? Why don't judges across the kingdom welcome the chance to overthrow this harsh sharia law that is being imposed (by someone, not sure who) on the poor downtrodden people there? Why do they consider it "trouble"?
Remember, the Saudis are our "good friend", our "staunch ally" in the "global war on terror". So what is their reaction to someone trying to help a victim who is sentenced to 90 lashes as punishment for being raped?
Oh. Right.
"Why don't judges across the kingdom welcome the chance to overthrow this harsh sharia law..."
Special Guest,
Haven't you heard? Sharia is in, baby. Peace and freedom are so five minutes ago. And as long as there are pathetic, whining losers in the world who can't or won't produce, there will always be a fresh supply of scumbags lining up to make other people's lives as miserable as their own. It happened in communist countries. It seems to be a hallmark of Islam.
This guy has big brass ones, I'll give him that, he may be tilting at windmills but sometimes you have to make a fight like this, even if you loose.
In final analysis, the Bush family ties with fanatic Wahhabbis will be the single straw that broke the USpfA camel's back. Like americaningermany noted, Wahhabbis don't export oil. They export Islam..... if one sees the connection. Oh... and for the record, am not a democrat.
Just think! If the Muslims take over, the Religious Police will be in your neighborhood.
And Stupid Americans worry about the police tasering a miscreant who is combative,on drugs and creating a disturbance. When the Religious Police take over you will have to worry about seeing the sun rise.
The lynch mob after Virgil Goode for saying the truth, and implicitly blaming them for letting in the 19 hijackers, is much like the Saudi Religious Police.
The PC police and the Saudi Religious Police, both hate truth. They both have betrayed their people and both don't want that said.
Despite laws in place since 2002 protecting suspects' rights to legal counsel and requiring public trials, most trials are held in secret, without defense lawyers.
Wow, all the way back in 2002 they were so modern!
Could these laws coming at that time have something to do with the fact that before 9/11 no one in America gave a crap what was happening in Saudi until the light of the world shone on them.
It's a lot easier to practice evil in the darkness.