Libyans call woman who claimed gang rape a prostitute

Tripoli:  The Libyan authorities on Sunday attacked the character and credibility of a Libyan woman who burst into a hotel full of foreign journalists to say that she had been abducted and raped by militia members working for Col. Moammar el-Gaddafi, calling her "a known prostitute and a thief."

The woman, Eman al-Obeidy, has become well known in Libya and around the world since the episode at the hotel on Saturday.

She told journalists that she had been raped by 15 men and displayed large bruises on her face and legs, as well as deep scratches. But as she tried to talk, security officials and people who had previously appeared to be hotel workers raced to silence her, at one point even attempting to place a coat over her head.

Her pursuers scuffled with journalists attempting to interview, photograph and protect her. Security officials ultimately dragged her screaming from the hotel and drove her away. But her accusations were heard and the scuffle seen on television networks and Web sites worldwide.

And the experience she described was consistent with longstanding reports of human rights abuses in Libya under the Gaddafi government.

Ms. Obeidy's mother, Aisha Ahmed, a resident of the rebel-held town of Tobrok, told The Washington Post that Ms. Obeidy was a 26-year-old law student in Tripoli. "I am very happy, very proud," her mother said, calling Ms. Obeidy a hero.

Ms. Obeidy's parents reportedly said government officials had called them early Sunday to offer her money and a new house if she recanted. Relatives reached through a rebel activist late Sunday declined to talk.

A cousin, Wadad Omar, told Reuters that Ms. Obeidy worked in the tourism industry, and said that three other women, all lawyers, were abducted with her at a checkpoint outside Tripoli and were missing. As she was dragged from the hotel Ms. Obeidy screamed that others with her were in captivity.

Musa Ibrahim, a government spokesman, has cycled through a series of contradictory characterizations of Ms. Obeidy and her case. He initially suggested that she appeared drunk and may have fabricated her story, or "her fantasies."

Later on Saturday, he said that police detectives had found her sane, sober and in good health. He called her complaints credible and said detectives were investigating them. And he said she would be offered a chance to meet again with journalists.

On Sunday, however, Mr. Ibrahim told reporters that detectives had learned she was a prostitute, with "a whole file of prostitution cases and petty theft."

"The girl is not what she pretended to be," he said. "This is her line of work. She has known these boys for years."

"I can't see anything political about her situation," he added, "The men have been questioned, but since she is refusing the medical examination they can't prove the rape case." Asked at a press conference about his earlier statements, Mr. Ibrahim declined to repeat them, saying he now wanted to protect her privacy, "without talking about people's previous crimes, their lifestyles."

He said that she had been released to relatives in Tripoli, but that could not be confirmed.

In Benghazi, the center of the rebellion challenging Colonel Gaddafi's four decades in power, residents held a rally supporting Ms. Obeidy. "Eman, you are not alone," one sign read.

In Tripoli, several residents said they had heard about the episode from satellite news channels. Some said they did not believe that in Libya's traditional culture a woman would speak so openly of a sexual crime. But others said they believed her. They pointed to her brutal treatment as an example of Colonel Gaddafi's tight grip on the capital.