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| Arabia |
| Algerian girl killed in Mecca: two Yemenis brought to justice |
| 2010-09-27 |
| [Ennahar] Two Yemenis accused of murdering an Algerian teenage girl in Mecca, holy city west of Saudi Arabia, have been brought to justice, the Saudi daily Okaz reported on Sunday. The main accused will be prosecuted also for attempted rape, the newspaper said without specifying the date of the trial. The two Yemenis are punishable by death under Sharia law, Islamic law in force in Saudi Arabia. In mid-September, the Saudi authorities have launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of a 15 years old Algerian girl, whose body was found on the roof of a hotel adjacent to where she was living in Mecca. According to Saudi media, she tried to escape an attempted rape and threw herself from the balcony or the terrace of her hotel. According to the Algerian press, she was raped and killed. The police announced the arrest of four hotel employees, two Yemenis and two from Bangladesh. These last two have been released. The teenager, who lives in France, came with her family in Mecca to perform Umrah, a pilgrimage made outside the dates of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage. The case provoked excitement of Algerians pilgrims in Mecca, and some 300 of them gathered outside the hotel demanding an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of the girl. The victim, of a French mother, was in Mecca with her father, a native of Tlemcen (west Algeria) and her brother seven years old. She came from Marseilles. |
| Posted by:Fred |