NEW DELHI: Senior Saudi Arabian diplomat Majed Hassan Ashoor, who was charged with the rape of two Nepalese women he kept in confinement as sex slaves, has left the country, the Ministry of External Affairs has said.
“We have learnt that the first secretary Majed Hassan Ashoor who was allegedly accused of raping two Nepalese women has left India,” MEA spokesperson Vikas Swaroop said. “The first secretary being a diplomat is governed by the provision of the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations,” he said.
Saudi Arabia had refused to revoke Ashoors diplomatic immunity which means that he could not be tried in India. As an angry India urged the Gulf nation to cooperate with the police, Saudi Arabia had steadfastly maintained that the charges against Ashoor were false.
MEA wanted the Saudi Embassy to allow the questioning of the diplomat given the nature of the allegations, following which Saudi Arabia decided to withdraw the diplomat, PTI reported.
On September 7, Gurgaon Police had conducted a raid at the diplomat’s residence after receiving a complaint that the two Nepalese women were kept there in confinement and raped by the diplomat and his “guests” repeatedly. The Saudi Embassy termed the allegations as “false” and protested the police “intrusion” into the diplomat’s house saying it was against “all diplomatic conventions”.
The External Affairs Ministry had called in Saudi Arabian Ambassador Saud Mohammed Alsati last Thursday and told him that the accused diplomat should cooperate in the probe into the case.
But it did not get any response despite being in touch with the mission officials here for at least a week, sources said. During the impasse, the diplomat along with his family has shifted to the Saudi Embassy. The two Nepalese women have already gone back to their country.
There were also reports that NSA Ajit Doval had a hand in resolving the issue without damaging the bilateral ties, PTI reported.
Times of India reported that the two women, in their shocking testimony to police, have detailed the brutal abuse they suffered at the hands of the diplomat and his friends. Medical tests have confirmed rape. The women had allegedly said that sometimes seven or eight men would take turns in raping them.
The Nepalese women held had been so “grievously tortured” that it would take years for them to heal, a senior official at the Gurgaon civil hospital told The Indian Express.
Medical examination showed that the women had gone through every possible form of sexual abuse, the report said.
The report claimed that guests of the Saudi diplomat watched porn and performed the acts featured in it on the two women.
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