Saudis outraged over sentence given to man who set wife on fire

In the past few days, thousands of Saudi tweeps have been taking to Twitter, expressing their outrage over what they described as the unfair sentencing of a man who abused his wife and set her on fire. 

The incident took place years back, in 2006, but only came to light when the abused woman, Hajar Al-Harbi went public with her story earlier this week. She demanded the retrial of her husband, who was only sentenced to a flogging and a 19-month jail sentence back then. 

A male friend who joined her husband during the attack was not even prosecuted, and Al-Harbi is also demanding a retrial. 

Speaking to local daily Okaz, Al-Harbi said that her husband falsely accused her of cheating on him and wanted to force a confession out of her during the attack. 

"My husband rushed into our room, beat me up and kept looking around for a man he said I was hiding in our home. He strangled me, chained me, beat me, threw gasoline all over my body and then asked his friend to get him a lighter from the kitchen," she said. 

Even though Al-Harbi survived the ordeal, she had to spend months in a hospital recovering from wounds. 

In the years after the attack, she received no legal compensation and no help in covering her mounting medical bills.

To this day, she's still traumatized by all that she has had to endure.

"I don't know why he was given this sentence and I don't understand why his friend wasn't even prosecuted. Despite forensic reports that proved the injuries I had sustained, I still wasn't paid any damages that would have covered my medical bills," Al-Harbi said in her interview with Okaz. 

The sentencing received by the victim's husband falls under the 'public right' section of Saudi Arabia's legal system, which also gives a victim the right to keep a case going based on their 'personal right.'

Even though it's considered extremely rare for an abused women in Saudi Arabia to speak up, Al-Harbi has bravely decided to stand up for her rights. 

She continues to seek justice based on her 'personal right' in the case.  

Ever since Al-Harbi's story resurfaced on social media earlier this week, thousands of Twitter users have been taking to the platform expressing their utter shock and outrage over the incident. 

Many voiced their shock at the lenient sentence her husband received, especially given the fact that his crime is considered an attempted murder. 

Others stood by Al-Harbi in her call for a retrial. 

"You hand this sentence to a monster!! And after he serves it, he'll be free to live his life, while this woman spends the rest of hers trying to recover both physically and emotionally!" 

"A man who literally set his wife on fire is sentenced to 19 months!!! We're living in a jungle. Cases of violence against women will keep rising in the country because there are no laws to prevent them."  

"He's a man so you hand him a 19 month jail sentence... if a woman had done what he did you would've sentenced her to death."