SMS saves woman from rapist

Saudi Arabia’s religious police seized an Egyptian man who kidnapped and raped a local girl after she texted her friend’s mobile telling her where she had been held, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The man, 28, had known the 24-year-old Saudi girl through Facebook and persuaded her that he intends to marry her after forging Saudi identity for himself and sending it to her e mail, Sabq Arabic language daily said.

The unnamed man, who lives in the western port of Yanbu, also fooled the girl into transferring SR125,000 ($33,000) to his bank account.

He then agreed that they meet at her home town of Makkah, where he tried to embezzle more money from her after making her sleep with him at a local hotel.

The paper said the man threatened to send her photos to relatives and forced her to come with him to a rented apartment in the city.

“At the apartment, he tried again to sleep with her and take more money but she refused after learning he is not Saudi and is trying to blackmail her…he then raped her in late Ramadan although she was fasting,” the paper said.

“After he finished, he started to smoke hashish while she went to the bathroom…there, she texted her friend, who informed members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice....they rushed to the apartment and arrested him although he tried to resist.”

Sabq said the man faces many charges including swindling, kidnapping, rape, forgery, blackmail, theft and drug possession. The girl was taken to a local hospital for tests on pregnancy and her health condition.

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