Saudi scholarship student in Britain falsely accused

Saudi Gazette Report JEDDAH — Shadi Badawood, a Saudi scholarship student who is studying for his Ph.D. degree in Hull University in Britain, is currently in police custody facing charges against him by his Arab wife including controlling behavior, assault, death threats and rape. Badawood is studying for his Ph.D. degree in digital advertisement and is very active socially among the Saudi and Arab students. In his defense, Ahd Al-Jarf, his second Saudi wife and also a scholarship student, said she contacted the Saudi Embassy in London to appoint a lawyer for him, and the mission has assigned him a lawyer and is in direct contact with her. She said she had visited him when in police custody and that he has been there for a seven days. He has been on hunger strike for four days, she added. Al-Jarf, who has been married for two years and is expecting a baby, said she told the police investigator that her husband had never mistreated her and that what is happening to him is a conspiracy orchestrated by his wife and her friends. She said the accusations of controlling behavior, beating and death threats against him were dropped but he is now facing the most serious charge, which is raping his wife who is of an Arab origin. Al-Jarf explained that rape is a serious crime in Britain, which will be judged by the Supreme Court because it is a very sensitive accusation that cannot easily be proved or nullified. "It is an easy accusation which wives may sometimes resort to just to put their husbands behind bars," she added. Al-Jarf said a dispute erupted between her husband and his wife followed by a heated discussion in a public park in Hull city after which a friend of the Arab wife, called the police. She said the woman claimed that she was enlightening the wife on her legal rights in Britain. Al-Jarf also said that only two female friends of the wife testified against the husband. Badawood’s eldest son, who was present when the heated discussion between his father and his Arab wife took place, told the police that his father never chased his wife in the park but had only asked her to give him back the mobile phone so as to stop harassing him.