Libyan 'rape' victim arrives in Romania

A week after being deported from Qatar, woman who said she was gang raped by Gaddafi troops lands at UN refugee centre.

Last Modified: 07 Jun 2011 14:49

A Libyan woman who said she was raped by troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has landed at a UN centre in Romania, a week after being deported back to Libya by Qatar, the UN refugee agency has said.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR] said on Tuesday that Iman Al-Obeidi had been taken to a UN refugee transit centre in the western Romanian city of Timisoara.

"She is currently being cared for by UNHCR staff along with other refugees who have been evacuated from a number of difficult locations in the world," Machiel Salomons, UNHCR representative in Romania, said.

Salomons said al-Obeidi was evacuated from Libya on Sunday by UNHCR staff and flown to Romania via Italy, arriving at the refugee camp late that day.

Claudia Liute, the UNHCR spokeswoman, said: "It is a delicate case and I can't say more. She will leave Romania in a maximum of six months."

The UN centre is a temporary haven for refugees from around the world awaiting resettlement to a third country.

The announcement comes almost two days after Marwa al-Obeidi, Iman's sister, said that she was on her way to the US. Marwa has said that Iman wants to move to the US.

Al-Obeidi spent nearly a month in Qatar before authorities there forced her and her parents to board a flight last week to Benghazi in Libya in violation of international law, the UNHCR said.

She left Qatar having reportedly suffered bruises to her body.

Obeidi, 29, made headlines in March when she rushed into the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, where most foreign correspondents were staying, and recounted her story of being stopped at a checkpoint, dragged away and gang-raped by Gaddafi troops.

Her claims could not be independently verified.

Source:

Agencies

http://aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/06/201167132517857264.html