300 LASHES
March 6th, 2003
The Daily Telegraph
Mirror Australian Telegraph Publications
AUSTRALIAN Robert Thomas has received 50 lashes from a
bamboo cane every fortnight for the past two months.
And despite protests by Australian diplomats, this innocent man's torture is set
to continue at the hands of the Saudi Arabian Government.
Mr Thomas' crime: he is married to a woman who refused to confess to stealing hospital equipment.
He has so far received 250 lashes out of a sentence of 300, but will remain incarcerated in Riyadh for another 12 months even when his beatings finish.
Prime Minister John Howard yesterday described the punishment as "appallingly inhumane".
Mr Thomas, 56, was arrested in June last year and jailed for the theft Saudi authorities say was committed by his Filipina nurse wife, Lorna.
Under Saudi law, he was found guilty by association – a husband being presumed to have knowledge of his wife's actions.
His sentence – 18 months' jail and 300 lashes with a bamboo stick – began on September 8. His wife received the same sentence.
So far she has received 200 lashes – her punishment, however, being made public and her beatings taking place outside prison walls.
Mr Thomas has now decided to divorce his wife.
The Australian Government said its protests to the Saudis had fallen on deaf ears. Saudi Arabia has consistently ignored international condemnation about its Sharia law judicial punishments, which include floggings and amputation.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his department had lobbied since late last year for the Saudi Government to release Mr Thomas.
Mr Thomas, an anaesthetic technician, has lived in Saudi Arabia for a decade. A Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said the Government registered its protest in November – two months after his sentence began.
It later unsuccessfully pursued his release under an amnesty during the holy Ramadan period.
Amazingly, Australian officials in Riyadh who have visited Mr Thomas, said he was maintaining his spirits.
The departmental spokeswoman said Mr Thomas was being held in an air-conditioned cell with 12 others, and had access to English books and television. But his family in Melbourne has demanded the beatings be stopped and contradicted the department's story.
Mr Thomas' daughter Sarah Munro said her father was crammed in an unhygienic, overcrowded cell with people who did not speak English.
Mr Downer said the Government had not given up trying to have Mr Thomas released.