SANA'A: Police officers in Yemen's capital Sana'a told Bikyamasr.com that a group of 7 drunk Yemeni youth attacked a 13-year-old orphan girl. After raping her, the young men beat up the orphan so badly that she succumbed to the blows of her attackers. Residents told our correspondent that they felt utterly disgusted, stressing that never before they had witnessed so much violence and lawlessness. “Despite what people may say about the former regime at least we did not live in fear for our daughters. Now even the police cannot enforce the most basic laws,” said Ahmed al-Mosawa. The victim was attacked on Wednesday morning as she was buying bread at the local bakery. Eye witnesses said they saw a car drive by and grab the young girl. “They just sped away with her screaming, we could not do anything,” said a local resident who preferred not to reveal his identity. The police revealed that the prime suspect of their investigation was Ali Abdel-Kareem Hamid, the son of a powerful tribal leader, who is now using his influence to keep his son out of prison. Local residents expressed their outrage when they heard the Sheikh had proposed to pay the girl father, her only relative, for damages, even offering to marry her off post mortem to one of the attackers as to wash the shame. The Sheikh who is facing mounting pressure warned that he would kill whoever dared try to take his son into custody, prompting widespread condemnation across Yemen, where rape and drunkenness are offenses one cannot so easily run away from. Clerics already called on the authorities to make an example out of the boy, saying that rape was a capital offense.
