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British students raped in Middle East by two men pretending to save them from four drunks
Last updated at 23:22pm on 16.10.07Two British students were allegdly kidnapped and raped in Jordan by two men who earlier saved them from drunk thugs.
The women, both aged 20, were attacked by two men during a visit to one of the traditionally most peaceful and stable countries in the Middle East.
They were visiting the biblical sites around the Dead Sea where but fell out with the cab driver while heading home and they then hitched a lift in a truck.
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Danger spot: The two women were raped after swimming in the Dead Sea
They caught a ride to the central Jordan Valley town of Al Shuneh where they met a woman who offered them a bed for the night.
A police spokesman said: "Four drunk men tried to forcefully enter the local woman's house to kidnap the Britons.
"Helped by her brother and his male friend, the local woman sneaked the British women out through a back door.
"But on the road, the brother and his friend allegedly raped the Britons and dumped them in an isolated vegetable grove."
The women, who are spending a year learning Arabic in the Syrian capital of Damascus, had spent last Friday evening swimming at a public beach at the Dead Sea before trying to find a taxi ride back to Amman.
The two suspected attackers were caught and face the death penalty if convicted of rape and kidnapping. Four other men have been charged with attempted rape.
The attack was the second incident involving assaults on foreign women in Jordan in recent weeks.
Last month, an American woman was violently assaulted by a taxi driver in Amman.
Jordan, a moderate Arab nation has traditionally enjoyed good relations with the West and is proud of its low crime.
In September 2006 a British tourist, Christopher Stokes, 30, from Littleborough, near Rochdale, was shot dead after visiting the Roman amphitheatre in Amman by a local man.
The gunman came from Jordan's large population of Palestinian refugees and although he had no history of violence he attacked Mr Stokes and fellow western tourists as a gesture of jihadism against the west.
Reader views (1)
A similar thing happened to a friend of mine in Melbourne, Australia after the 1984 bush fires - a neighbour had come to rescue her and her small child from the farmhouse where they lived - she was in the pond with only a T-shirt on - he took them back to his house to await her husband - sent the kid upstairs and then raped her! He was arrested and sentenced once her husband returned - you never can tust anyone!
- Patricia Hyde, Alicante, Spain
