Four Saudi rapists who attacked an expat woman in front of her husband and daughter are sentenced to SEVEN THOUSAND lashes

A court in Saudi Arabia has ordered four men to be flogged and jailed for 52 years for raping a foreign woman in front of her expat husband and daughter.

The gang - three Saudis and one Sudanese man - were sentenced to a total of 7,000 lashes by the court in Jeddah. 

None of the rapists have been identified and the nationality of the victim is not known.

The first defendant, who was 17 at the time, was jailed for 17 years and will be given 2,500 lashes in 50 sessions, while two of his accomplices were jailed for 15 years each and given 1,500 lashes

The Saudi daily Al Riyadh said the fourth defendant was sentenced to five years in prison and 1,500 lashes.

The gang forced their way into a house in Jeddah, tied the man up with electric wire, stripped his wife and raped her in front of him and their young daughter.

They stole 10,000 Saudi riyals (£2,100) and eight mobile phones but returned to the house and raped the woman again, at knifepoint.

The four men confessed after being arrested. Many people on social media in Saudi Arabia called for them to be



executed. 

Last a Saudi prince was flogged in prison in Jeddah as punishment for an unspecified crime.

Saudi Arabia, a leading Arab ally of the United States and guardian of the birthplace of Islam, follows the strict Wahhabi Sunni Muslim school, which involves the imposition of Sharia law.

Last month a Saudi prince was executed in Riyadh after a court found him guilty of shooting dead a fellow Saudi, in what was the first execution of a prince since the 1970s.

Prince Turki bin Saud al-Kabir had pleaded guilty to shooting Adel al-Mohaimed after a brawl, the ministry of interior said. 

Saudi social media users interpreted the rare execution of a prince as a sign of equality under Islamic law.

Saudi Arabia's 80-year-old King Salman is thought to be keen on cracking down on some of the country's hundreds of playboy princes.

In 2010 Prince Saud bin Abdulaziz bin Nasir al Saud, 34, was jailed for life for killing a manservant in a London hotel.  The prince was later deported to Saudi Arabia under a controversial deal.