Officials: Freed; Reality: Hidden

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Libyan woman who alleged rape remains hidden from world

Posted: March 28th, 2011 -- 05:42 PM ET

1 Comment | Add a comment [to AC360º blog]

CNN Wire Staff

(CNN) -- She burst into a Tripoli, Libya, hotel over the weekend, pleading with journalists to tell the world that she was raped by government troops. As security forces subdued the screaming woman and dragged her away, she warned, "If you don't see me tomorrow, then that's it."

Two days later, reporters have not seen Eman al-Obeidy.

The same government that took her away is insisting she is fine. But reporters and human rights activists have not been able to see her, and her whereabouts are unclear.

"I am not ashamed of my daughter," al-Obeidy's mother told Al-Jazeera television Monday. "I am proud of her because she has broken the barrier. She broke the barrier that no man can break. And those dogs there with him, Moammar, (are) the criminals!"

Al-Obeidy's family said she is a lawyer -- and not a prostitute or mentally ill as Libyan government officials initially said after the incident. The government later changed its story, saying she was sane and was pursuing a criminal case.

Al-Obeidy's family said they were offered money if she would change her story.

"Yesterday late at night at 3 a.m. they called me from Bab al Aziziya," Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's compound in Tripoli, al-Obeidy's mother told Al-Jazeera. "And they told me: Make your daughter Eman change her statement ... and we will release her immediately and whatever you ask for you will get, whether money, or a new apartment, or guaranteeing financial security for you and your children. But just tell Eman to change her statement."

"I called my daughter and said, 'My daughter, stand firm! Stand firm!' She said, 'I will stand firm and I will never change my statement.' "

It was not clear how al-Obeidy's mother reached her by phone.

A government spokesman said Sunday that al-Obeidy had been released and was "with her family."

A group of lawyers and human rights activists tried to approach her sister's house Monday, but were blocked by security forces. Al-Obeidy's sister's mobile phone has apparently been turned off, a source with the Lebanese opposition in Tripoli told CNN. And no one has seen the sister since the incident at the hotel.

When she entered the room full of foreign reporters during breakfast Saturday, al-Obeidy's face was bruised, as were her legs. She showed the journalists blood on her right inner thigh. Speaking in English, she said she was from the rebel stronghold of Benghazi and had been held against her will for two days and raped by 15 men.

"Look at what Gadhafi's brigades did to me," she said. "My honor was violated by them." She displayed what appeared to be visible rope burns on her wrists and ankles.

CNN could not independently verify al-Obeidy's story, but her injuries appeared consistent with what she said.

Government officials tried to stifle her, but she persisted. Security forces moved to subdue her, and even a member of the hotel's kitchen staff drew a knife. "Traitor!" he shouted at her. Another staffer tried to throw a dark tablecloth over her head.

One government official, who was there to facilitate access for journalists, pulled a pistol from his belt. Others scuffled with the journalists and wrestled them to the ground in an attempt to take away their equipment. Some journalists were beaten and kicked. CNN's camera was confiscated and deliberately smashed beyond repair.

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said Sunday that al-Obeidy has not committed "any particular major offense," and had "just entered a place she wasn't supposed to enter." She has "a criminal case against four individuals" and "we need to protect her privacy," he said.

Ibrahim said al-Obeidy and her family were asked if they want to be interviewed by "one or two, preferably female, reporters to verify that she's fine, she's healthy, she's free with her family." But Ibrahim refused to take further questions on the issue Sunday, repeatedly stating that Libyan society is "very conservative."

CNN's Nic Robertson, who has been on the ground in Tripoli since February 27, noted that what Ibrahim says often "doesn't match reality."

In the Al-Jazeera interview with her parents at an undisclosed location in Libya, al-Obeidy's mother asked, "Where are you, youth of Tripoli? Where are you? Where were you when Eman was being kidnapped in front of the cameras? Tell the world about the protests in the east and what is happening in Benghazi, and Ajdabiya, and Misrata. Tell it! Tell it! Tell it to Al-Jazeera! Where were you, youth of Tripoli, when Eman was kidnapped from between your hands? Where were you? Where were you? Take action, Tripoli youth!"

Her father told Al-Jazeera that Eman "has her full mental capabilities and she is a graduate of law school and a lawyer and she is pursuing higher education in Tripoli. And she was kidnapped by Gadhafi's tyrannical forces."

CNN's Nic Robertson and Salma Abdelaziz contributed to this report

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1 Comment

ADAM
March 28th, 2011 -- 6:31 pm ET
A civil law suit against Rixos Hotel chain based in Turkey is currently being pursued on behalf of Eman Obedi who was physically attacked by the staff of that hotel.The attorney will be seeking compensatory damages on her behalf.