The Libyan government said official charges have been brought against the woman who stormed into a hotel in Tripoli to tell western reporters she was allegedly being raped by Muammar Gaddafi's men. Iman al-Obedi burst into the Rixos hotel on Sunday in an attempt to tell foreign journalists she was raped by 15 soldiers at a checkpoint. The video, which shocked the world, showed the events of her attempted escape and how she was tackled and dragged out of the hotel by security men with the help of the hotel's staff. International journalists tried to help the woman in vein. She said 15 men detained and raped her at a checkpoint on Wednesday. She said that the men were intoxicated and that they handcuffed her prior to her rape. “The boys who she accused of rape are making a case against her because it's a grave offense to accuse someone of a sexual crime,” Mussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman told reporters in Tripoli. Reportedly, the spokesman was irritated that the attention was on Obeidi's case and not on the ongoing events in Libya. He said “a high ranking Libyan official” was among the men she is accusing of rape. The official response towards the recorded incident and the allegation has been a changing one. The government spokesman initially described the woman as drunk and delusional however, on Saturday, he told the press she was in fact sane and not drunk. A day later, Ibrahim told reporters that the woman is a “prostitute and a thief.” The spokesman added that because the woman refused to undergo a medical examination, her case against the men who allegedly raped her, was dropped. Mussa also said that the woman will be given a chance to speak to the press again without giving any more details on the meeting. The whereabouts of Obeidi has not been announced by the government since her disappearance from the hotel. On a recent interview with Al Jazeera, Obeidi's parents said they received a phone call from an unidentified caller on Monday who tried to negotiate with them. The caller said their daughter was being held at a Tripoli compound and advised them to tell their daughter to change her allegations for her release. Obeidi's case generated much international attention over the past week due to the stressing nature of the video. Amnesty International, the London-based human rights organization, had called on Monday for an investigation to be opened and called her allegations “stomach wrenching.” “The Libyan authorities must immediately launch an independent and impartial investigation and bring those responsible to justice if the allegations are well-founded,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Director. BM
