Saudi Arabia and Women's Rights
Allahu Akbar | 05.09.2003 23:54
Over four weeks Sammy Shadukhi, 22, whipped, stabbed and almost drowned the 17-year-old, whom he also made pregnant, Inner London Crown Court was told. After he threatened to "slaughter her like a sheep" she escaped through a window, plunging 60 feet to the river shore and breaking her back, leg and ankle.
Nicholas Atkinson QC, for the prosecution, said that two days before the trial officials at the Saudi Arabian embassy tried to bribe the victim into dropping the case. The Foreign Office said last night that it was investigating that allegation.
Judge van der Werff told Shadukhi: "You kept her under your control at all times and you subjected her to various sorts of torture ... tying her up with wire and Sellotape and keeping her like that for long periods. It was a terrible time for her, a period of her life she will never be able to forget." He said the teenager had terminated her pregnancy.
The court was told that the girl had arrived in Britain with Shadukhi in January last year and he locked her in his Rotherhithe flat. Mr Atkinson said: "The defendant would secure her hands and feet with tape and put her in the bath and push her under the water. On one occasion he stabbed her feet in the bath with a kitchen knife so she saw the water turning red with her blood." He said Shadukhi made her stand half-dressed for hours, hit her with a mop handle and whipped her with a mobile phone charger.
The teenager said that when he forced her head under the water, Shadukhi would say: "This is the last day of your life. You don't deserve to live. I have to get rid of you."
Shadukhi denied all the charges, claiming the victim was lying and her injuries were either self-inflicted or the result of her fall.
Allahu Akbar
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