SRE assumes defense of Mexican sentenced to 100 lashes after denouncing sexual abuse in Qatar

The Mexican government assumed the defense of a Mexican woman who faces the risk of a sentence of one hundred lashes and seven years in prison in Tasteafter denouncing a man for sexual assault, the Foreign Ministry reported this Sunday.

“The Ministry of Foreign Relations has assumed the defense and legal representation” of Paola Schietekatthe ministry told AFP in an email.

Schietekat, 27, says he was working until the middle of last year as a behavioral economist, developing public policy, at the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacythe official entity that organizes the World Cup Qatar-2022.

In a letter titled “A world that seems to hate women”, the Mexican denounced that on June 6, 2021 a man “from the Latin community” in Qatar, whom she knew, entered her Doha apartment at night to sexually assault her.

Schietekat, who last Friday was received by the Mexican foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrardstruggled with the man until he ended up on the floor with bruises on his arms and back, according to his account.

The woman, who claims to have suffered sexual abuse in her adolescence, then went to the Mexican embassy with photographs of the abuse and reported the case to the local justice, governed by Islamic laws.

That same day, the accused aggressor stated that she was “his girlfriend.” This would mean a sexual relationship outside the marriageconsidered a crime in Qatar, which according to Schietekat would carry a punishment of one hundred lashes and at least seven years in prison.

“At a certain point they demanded a virginity test from me. For some reason I had become the accused,” wrote the complainant, who returned to Mexico on July 25, according to her, helped by the organizing committee of the World Cup.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for March 6.

The young woman, who initially criticized the “little or rather no preparation of the Mexican embassy” in her defense, by not providing her with an Arabic translator from the beginning, has said on her social networks that she will avoid giving more details about the process. .

The Mexican Foreign Ministry delegated its legal consultant for the defense. “I recognized his courage and resolution,” Ebrard wrote on Twitter after interviewing Schietekat.