Australian police were stunned after the bodies of two Saudi women, who had been missing for a month, were found in an apartment in the city of Sydney.
Brothers Asra Abdullah Alsehli, 24, and Amaal Abdullah Alsehli, 23, were found dead in separate beds in a house in the suburb of Canterbury on 7 June.
Police, who were called home for a routine check-up, believe the women died in early May.
However, despite “extensive investigations”, authorities still do not know how or why this happened.
According to local newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald, the sisters may have moved from Saudi Arabia to Australia in 2017 and sought asylum. Police refused to confirm this information, saying that people in the country did not comment on the settlement status.
Has a human rights organization indicated that some facts need clarification? For example, suspected women have left Saudi Arabia due to domestic violence or the country’s harsh laws. However, there is no evidence that this is the case.
Australian police said the women had contacted family members and cooperated with the investigation.
Lina al-Hathloul, head of monitoring and communications at Saudi human rights organization ALQST, said this would “not be the first case” of Saudi women killed abroad after fleeing domestic violence.
“There is no protection for women victims of domestic violence in Saudi Arabia, so they flee abroad,” she told the BBC.
“I’m not saying that’s the case here, but we need a full investigation. It’s frustrating not to have any information,” he added.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, there were signs that something was wrong with the two sisters.
According to the newspaper, last year the women told the doorman of the building where they lived that they suspected someone was tampering with their food deliveries.
A plumber who visited the flat said he believed there was “something mysterious” and that police had been called in the past due to concerns about the two sisters.
The New South Wales State Police has issued a public appeal, saying “any information” could be crucial to solving the case.
“The local community is very tightly knit,” police said in a statement, and urged anyone who may have met or seen the women to come forward.
A report published by Australian broadcaster ABC in 2019 revealed that 80 Saudi women have sought asylum in Australia in recent years.
Many fled the country because of laws that restricted women’s liberties and in many cases required male guardianship.
– This text was published at https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-62346028.
source: Noticias
[author_name]
