by Donald Wood
Last updated: 12:30 PM ET, Tue June 14, 2016
Photo courtesy of Thinkstock
A female tourist from the Netherlands was released Monday after spending three months in a prison in Qatar after she told police that she had been raped.
According to The Associated Press, the 22-year-old woman was turned over to the Dutch Embassy after a brief court hearing where she received a one-year suspended prison sentence on charges of adultery.
The woman was on vacation with a friend when she believes she was drugged at a bar in Doha, the capital of Qatar. When she awoke later, she found her clothes were torn and she had been raped.
After going to the police to inform them of the crime against her, she was immediately detained for having sex out of wedlock, which is illegal in Qatar. She spent three months in prison and appeared in court three times before finally being released Monday.
It was unclear if the man accused of raping the woman had been sentenced for any crime since Qatari officials have declined to comment on the case.
Unfortunately, there are similar cases that have occurred in the Gulf Arab states, including a Norwegian woman who reported being raped in Dubai in 2013. She was sentenced to 16 months in prison for having sex outside of marriage, but was pardoned and permitted to leave the country.
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