Saudi students vanishing while facing Oregon charges
A university student from Saudi Arabia was arrested in Monmouth and accused of raping a classmate after giving her marijuana and shots of Jack Daniel’s.
Bail was set at a half-million dollars. The judge ordered the student, Abdulaziz Al Duways, to turn over his passport to the defense lawyer hired to represent him, according to court records and the Polk County District Attorney’s Office.
A few days later, an official from the Royal Consulate General of Saudi Arabia in Los Angeles posted bail.
Al Duways disappeared.
The case preceded a similar one involving Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah. The Portland Community College student jumped bail in the hit-and-run death of a 15-year-old Portland girl and apparently fled with the Saudi Arabian government’s help, law enforcement officials said.
But the two disappearances aren’t the only ones involving Saudi students facing serious criminal charges in Oregon. Criminal cases involving at least five Saudi nationals who vanished before they faced trial or completed their jail sentence in Oregon have been found. They include two accused rapists, a pair of suspected hit-and-run drivers and one man with child porn on his computer.
The five cases share many similarities:
- All were young men studying at a public college or university in Oregon with assistance from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the time of their arrest.
- In four of the cases, the Saudi government stepped in to help, posting large sums of money for bail and possibly underwriting legal fees.
- Three surrendered their passports.
- All disappeared while facing charges or jail time.
- The same Oregon defense attorney, Ginger Mooney, was hired to represent the four most recent suspects.
- Little is known of the whereabouts of the five, though some have been traced back to Saudi Arabia.
Most puzzling is how some of the students were able to leave the country and travel internationally after they had surrendered their passports.
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2019/01/gone-more-cases-emerge-of-saudi-students-vanishing-while-facing-oregon-charges.html