Riyadh (AsiaNews/Agencies) - In the latest twist of the case of a woman from Al-Khobar, in eastern Saudi Arabia, who fled after converting to Christianity, the Saudi Embassy in Sweden has been asked to find a diplomatic solution to repatriate her after she moved to the Scandinavian nation, this after her family's lawyer, Humood Al-Khaldi, said that she left the country illegally with the complicity of an official in Passports Office in Al-Kharj.
The case, which came to light last summer, involves a woman who worked at a bank or an insurance company and became acquainted with Christianity through a Lebanese national and a Saudi colleague.
She began to meet with them secretly for a few months and eventually fell in love with the Lebanese man who gave her books about Christianity and invited her to go to religious chat rooms.
After she converted, she fled to Lebanon with the help of the two men. When she left, her father filed a missing person report.
The two men involved in her flight were arrested and are now awaiting trial on charges of converting her, making her abandon Islam and helping her leave the country.
According to her family's lawyer, there must another accomplice in the Passports Department in Al-Kharj who granted her a passport on the basis of a travel permit signed by her father. However, since she is married, only her husband could sign such a document under Saudi law.
The fact that it was issued in Al-Kharj, even though she lives in Al-Khobar, is another reason for suspicion.
Her family is now saying that she is repentant but is not coming home out of fear of punishment.
In order to convince her to return, the family said that it has written a letter pledging not to harm her.
However, another letter is said to exist in which she defends her new faith, claiming the Church as her only home.