Saudi asylum seeker deletes Twitter account after death threats, friend says

[snoop1130]

Saudi asylum seeker deletes Twitter account after death threats, friend says

By Patpicha Tanakasempipat

 

Saudi teen Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun is greeted by Thai immigration authorities at a hotel inside Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand January 7, 2019. Thailand Immigration Police via REUTERS/Files

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Saudi teenager who fled to Thailand saying she feared her family would kill her deleted her Twitter account on Friday after getting death threats, a friend said, while she awaits a decision on where she might be granted asylum.

 

Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, arrived in Thailand on Saturday and was initially denied entry.

 

She soon started posting messages on Twitter from the transit area of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport saying she had "escaped Kuwait" and her life would be in danger if forced to return to Saudi Arabia.

 

Within hours, a campaign sprang up dubbed #SaveRahaf, spread on Twitter by a loose network of activists.

 

Thai authorities allowed her to enter the country on Monday and the U.N. refugee agency later referred her case to Australia for consideration for refugee resettlement.

 

Around mid-day on Friday, her Twitter account, @rahaf84427714, went offline after she posted that she had "bad and good news!"

 

The account reappeared briefly about an hour later but went offline again within minutes.

 

A Twitter user known as Nourah, whom Qunun has referred to as a friend, tweeted that Qunun "received death threats and for this reason she closed her Twitter account".

 

Qunun, who is staying in Bangkok at an undisclosed location and was not available for comment, had earlier said on Twitter she had been receiving death threats from a relative on the social media platform.

 

Sophie McNeill, an Australia Broadcast Corp. journalist who has had direct contact with Qunun, said the teenager was "safe and fine" but was taking a short break from Twitter.

 

"She's just been receiving a lot of death threats," McNeill said on Twitter.

 

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Thursday Australia was assessing whether to grant Qunun asylum.

 

While Payne said there was "no timeframe" for a decision, Thailand's immigration department chief, Surachate Hakparn, said it should become clear by Friday evening where Qunun would be granted asylum.

 

"Her physical and mental heath is good," Surachate told reporters.

 

"We should know by this evening which country she'll be going to."

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-1-11

[YetAnother]

26 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

"She's just been receiving a lot of death threats,"

only that ? where is the problem ?; seriously, my bet is this really happened, pity she was intercepted prior to getting to a(n) civilized advanced country

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Did BJ put his foot in it today....

 

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/11/asia/saudi-teen-australia-asylum-intl/index.html

 

Quote

Rahaf al-Qunun: Thai official retracts asylum comments, as teen deletes Twitter account

By Kocha Olarn and Helen Regan, CNN

Updated 6:54 AM ET, Fri January 11, 2019

 

Bangkok, Thailand (CNN)There was confusion Friday over where the 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled to Thailand to escape her allegedly abusive family would be resettled.

Thailand's Immigration Police Chief Surachate Hakparn initially told CNN that Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun had been offered asylum by both Australia and Canada. But he later requested that the statement be retracted.

 

 

 

 

Hours earlier, CNN had reported this version of the story:

 

Quote

 

Rahaf al-Qunun: Saudi teen granted asylum in Australia, officials say

By Kocha Olarn and Helen Regan, CNN

5 hrs ago

Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, the 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled to Thailand to escape her allegedly abusive family, has been granted asylum in Australia, a Thai immigration official said Friday.

 

"Yes, Australian has granted her asylum, but we are waiting to hear where exactly she is going," immigration police chief Surachate Hakparn confirmed to CNN.

 

 

[Oziex1]

56 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Did BJ put his foot in it today....

 

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/11/asia/saudi-teen-australia-asylum-intl/index.html

 

 

Hours earlier, CNN had reported this version of the story:

 

 

He's on the ball this fellow, he is the Immigration chief. 

Time to round up some nefarious overstayers, oh he just did that.  Where to now BJ. 

[mercman24]

once you renounce the Muslim religion , it makes one a target for the fanatics, how sad is that, its a life sentence

[sanemax]

We gave then Sinead O Connor and they gave us Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun .

We done quite well there 

[Gracas]

Why would she delete her Twitter account if she was receiving death threats ? Surely this would have been a positive thing helping support her application for asylum.

[kkerry]

49 minutes ago, Gracas said:

Why would she delete her Twitter account if she was receiving death threats ?

maybe she simply didn't like seeing death threats everytime she looked at her account... not very pleasant I would have thought... and in any case, looks like she has now been granted asylum.

[kkerry]

and headed to Canada if what i just read elsewhere is correct...

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

24 minutes ago, kkerry said:

and headed to Canada if what i just read elsewhere is correct...

Quote

 

Saudi Woman Who Fled Family Flying to Canada

By Richard C. Paddock and Ryn Jirenuwat

• Jan. 11, 2019

BANGKOK — An 18-year-old Saudi runaway who feared death at the hands of her family if she were deported home from Thailand left for Canada on Friday, Thai officials said.

 

The Thai immigration chief, Surachate Hakparn, a police general, said Canada had granted asylum to the woman, Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun. His assertion was not immediately confirmed by Canadian officials.

She boarded a flight to Seoul late Friday evening and from there was scheduled to fly to Toronto, said Mr. Surachate.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/world/asia/rahaf-saudi-canada-asylum.html

 

 

[pegman]

Well done Canada.

[chainarong]

This type of stuff is reserved for countries like Saudi, China, however there's nutters everywhere, their five minuets of fame if caught, when hiding behind electronic media their ego is as big as an ant, anyway the good news, the young lady is on her way to live in Canada, end of story folks.

 

[hansnl]

8 hours ago, kkerry said:

and headed to Canada if what i just read elsewhere is correct...

Canada?

Really?

Don't think that is a good choice for her seen the influx of Muslims there.

The girl is on a death sentence.

[kannot]

9 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/world/asia/rahaf-saudi-canada-asylum.html

 

 

liked the fathers  line , yeah because not  following stupid  fairy tales in a backward regime = "mental insanity"

 

He argued that she needed medical treatment

[alex8912]

15 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Did BJ put his foot in it today....

 

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/11/asia/saudi-teen-australia-asylum-intl/index.html

 

 

Hours earlier, CNN had reported this version of the story:

 

 

CNN the #1 purveyor of fake news has made many big errors in reporting this International story. Of course they never have admitted it.  I’d be concerned if they were a source of reliable news for me. They have been cought out several times just this week. This story is not that difficult to report correctly. 

CNN put its foot in its mouth not Thailand. They rush to push fake news all the time! 

[Sheryl]

I had been following her twitter feed, from the onset is was deluged with posts from men in Saudi Arabia calling her a whore, demanding she be hanged etc etc.

 

Anyone who thinks this was just teenage rebellion really should have rwad it.

 

Certainly it more than made the case for her, though I do nto think the UN needed to see twitter comments to know that a woman who has defied her family, travelled without consent, appeared unveiled in public meeting with unrelated men and publicly renounced Islam, is likely to be killed if returned to Saudi.

 

I think what changed is that her immediate relatives began posting very specific death threats and she understandably did not want this contact.

 

Sophie MacNeill, who is affiliated with ABC Four Corners, has been closely involved almost from the beginning, even barricaded herself inside the hotel room with Rafah and refusing to leave her side until UNHCR arrived and gave assurance of her safety.  So I think we can look forward to a Four Corners special based on first hand information that will fill in a lot of the gaps/correct other misreporting.

[Oziex1]

2 hours ago, kannot said:

liked the fathers  line , yeah because not  following stupid  fairy tales in a backward regime = "mental insanity"

 

He argued that she needed medical treatment

The same medical treatment Kashogi received, I presume.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

3 hours ago, alex8912 said:

 

CNN put its foot in its mouth not Thailand. They rush to push fake news all the time! 

 

The CNN report above doesn't give any indication that BJ claimed he was misquoted in the original CNN report. Instead, it says he later requested his original statement be "retracted" -- meaning taken back or removed.  There's no indication there that CNN didn't accurately report his original statement.

 

[alex8912]

4 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

The CNN report above doesn't give any indication that BJ claimed he was misquoted in the original CNN report. Instead, it says he later requested his original statement be "retracted" -- meaning taken back or removed.  There's no indication there that CNN didn't accurately report his original statement.

 

No one else reported this so CNN probably misunderstood as usual. They made other completely inaccurate assumptions before this and other posters also noted this.