Qatar,Jun 2 (CNN): The Libyan woman whose alleged rape by security forces received worldwide attention has been forcibly deported from Qatar back to Benghazi in Libya.
Eman al-Obeidy had been awaiting resettlement as a refugee, and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees had prepared papers for her departure from Qatar to begin a new life. But Qatari authorities took her and her parents from a hotel in the capital, Doha, and forced them onto a military plane that left Qatar early Thursday.
A UNHCR official told CNN that his agency had made repeated requests to the Qatari authorities not to deport al-Obeidy, and that unnamed third parties had also made appeals to Qatar.
"We tried all night to prevent her deportation," said Vincent Cochetel of the UNHCR office in Washington. He said the Qatari authorities had informed UNHCR that they had a court order that al-Obeidy's visa had expired; and they ignored UNHCR's arguments that she already had refugee status.