Libyan rape victim flees the country with help from defecting soldiers and Western diplomats
Last updated at 2:05 PM on 9th May 2011
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Escaped: Iman al-Obeidi has fled to safety in Tunisia after fearing for her life since accusing the Gaddafi regime of raping her repeatedly over two days
Disguise: Al-Obeidi demonstrates how she concealed her identity with a traditional headscarf as she fled from Libya to Tunisia
Military aid: The two defecting soldiers who transported Al-Obeidi from Tripoli to the Tunisian border using their army documents
While in the process of making the allegations to Western journalists at the Rixos Hotel on March 26, she was beaten and bundled out of the hotel by Libyan security guards who put a bag over her head. But Al-Obeidi has now crossed into Tunisia with the aid of a defecting military officer and his family. She left Tripoli in a military car and concealed her identity by wearing a traditional tribal headscarf that left just one of her eyes exposed.
Al-Obeidi had a refugees document for identity but, although they were challenged several times at checkpoints along the route, she said the military officer's credentials allowed them to travel relatively freely. A French embassy car was sent to the Libyan-Tunisian border to collect her and drive the eight hours to Tunis. She is now being protected by diplomats from the French embassy in Tunis, while she works out her next move. She is faced with the prospect of not being able to return to Libya to visit her parents in their hometown of Tobruk.
Stopped: A Libyan Ministry of Information official grabs Al-Obeidi as she revealed her ordeal to western journalists at a Tripoli hotel in March
Violence: Western journalists who tried to protect Al-Obeidi during her interviews at the Rixos Hotel were beaten 'I still do not know what I am going to do. Of course I'd like to see my family,' she told CNN.
Al-Obeidi had issued legal proceedings over her rape case in Libya and although Colonel Gaddafi’s son, Saadi, joined her in a TV interview and promised to bring her attackers to justice, she says the case has not moved forward. 'I usually get harassed when I have to show my Identification card to government officials somewhere, and they find out who I am and that I have put complaints forward against Gaddafi's people,' she told CNN in a recent interview.
'They humiliate me to the point where other people gather around and start saying that it is shameful to treat a Libyan woman that way.'
