Qatar: A Dutch woman from Utrecht is being held in Qatar on suspicion of adultery after she reported she had been raped, while she was on holiday. Her lawyer, Brian Lokollo lawyer said.
Laura 22 claims that she was drugged in a hotel in Doha, where alcohol is permitted. She woke up in an unfamiliar apartment and realised that she had been raped.
Lokollo said. “She was arrested in March on suspicion of adultery, which means having sex outside marriage.”
He added. “She went dancing but when she returned to the table after the first sip of her drink, she realised that she had been drugged,” Lokollo said. “She felt very unwell.”
The young woman remembered nothing more until the following morning when she woke up in a totally unfamiliar apartment “and realised to her great horror, that she had been raped”, said Mr Lokollo.
A Dutch foreign ministry spokeswoman said in a statement that.”We have provided assistance to her since the first day of detention. For the sake of the defendant’s case we will not make further comments at this point.”
According to Laura’s family’s lawyer, she went to the police after waking up in a strange apartment. She had flashbacks of being taken from the hotel in a taxi by an Arab man. The man whom she claims was also arrested. The man said that he paid Laura to have sex with him.
Mr Lokollo said. “She completely denies these accusations.”
Hundreds of people on Twitter have called for the woman’s release. Since the case has come to light. A court hearing is set to take place on Monday and the Foreign Ministry hopes a decision on whether to charge the Dutch woman will be made.
In 2013 a 24-year-old Norwegian woman who brought a rape complaint against her boss was jailed for 16 months in the neighbouring United Arab Emirates for so-called indecent behaviour, perjury extramarital sex and drinking alcohol after she told police she had been raped. and alcohol consumption.
She was later pardoned by the authorities.