Eman al-Obeidy has left Libya and is headed for Malta, a small country to the south of Italy, a high-level State Department source has told CNN.
al-Obeidy, who is with her father and a representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, an agency that protects refugees and resolves refugee problems across the world, will eventually go to a processing center in Europe before being moved to a final location.
al-Obeidy, the Libyan woman who claims she was gang-raped by men in Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces, had been deported back to Libya on June 2 after escaping to Qatar, CNN reported.
al-Obeidy had been taken to Benghazi, a city held by rebels. Although she had gone into hiding, al-Obeidy spoke with CNN and said Qatari authorities beat, handcuffed and forced her to get onto a military plane that took her back to Libya.
A representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees had gone to the Qatari hotel where al-Obeidy was staying but was stopped by armed guards from entering al-Obeidy’s hotel room. The representative was going to accompany al-Obeidy to the airport, where the alleged rape victim would have taken a plane to an emergency transit center in Romania.
al-Obeidy made headlines in March when she burst into the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli, where international reporters were staying, and told them she had been taken, beaten and raped by 15 Qaddafi militiamen for two days.
She was subsequently dragged out of the hotel by government agents and not heard from for more than a week as she was held in custody. According to Qaddafi’s representatives, the government was investigating al-Obeidy’s claims. al-Obeidy told CNN that she was interrogated for 72 hours and released after a doctor examined her and determined she had been tortured and raped.
Despite her release, al-Obeidy feared for her safety. “They have threatened me with death and told me I will never leave prison again if I go to the journalists or tell them anything about what’s happening in Tripoli,” she said to CNN. al-Obeidy said she had attempted to leave Tripoli multiple times but kept being stopped by government forces.
With the aid of two defecting Qaddafi army officers and their families, she was eventually able to flee Libya to Tunisia on May 5. She was then driven from the border by French diplomats and given to members of the Transitional National Council, the Libyan rebels’ government, who arranged a flight for her to Qatar.
“I felt my soul is liberated,” al-Obeidy told CNN after arriving in Qatar. “I am able to talk what I want, live like I choose. I was living in fear, and I was worried, and I was tired. It was a psychological issue. But, when I arrived to Doha, I felt comfortable, as if I have forgotten all these problems that happened to me. I felt so relieved.”
From her hiding place in Libya, al-Obeidy told journalists that the Transitional National Council pressured the Qatar government to deport her. The reason for the Libyan rebel government’s involvement in her deportation is unclear, but Yahoo! News reports that al-Obeidy is no longer on good terms with Qatar-based Libyan rebels.
“Forcibly returning a refugee who survived gang rape not only violates international law, but is cruel and could trigger further trauma,” said Bill Frelick, refugee program director at Human Rights Watch, an organization that defends and protects human rights.
“We’ve not spoken with Ms. al-Obeidy since she left Qatar, but we have been in contact with senior officials in the Transitional National Council in Benghazi, and we’ve made clear U.S. interests in her case,” said State Department spokesman Mark Toner. “I believe she is safe where she is at right now.”
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