Web Desk (LTN NEWS): The bodies of two Saudi women, who may have been dead for a month before they were found, were found in a Sydney apartment. This has left Australian police puzzled.
Asra Abdullah Alsehli, 24, and Amaal Abdullah Alsehli, 23, were found dead at their home in the suburb of Canterbury on June 7. They were in different beds.
Police were called to the house to make sure the women were okay, but they are thought to have died in early May.
But they still don’t know how or why even after “extensive inquiries.”
The sisters moved to Australia from Saudi Arabia in 2017, and The Sydney Morning Herald said that they may have been trying to get asylum. The police wouldn’t say for sure because they don’t talk about where people live.
A human rights group said it should be found out if the women left Saudi Arabia because of violence at home or because of the harsh laws that govern women. But there is no proof that this is true.
Police said they had talked to the women’s families, who are helping them with their investigations.
Lina al-Hathloul, who is in charge of monitoring and communications at the Saudi human rights group ALQST, said that it “would not be the first case” of a Saudi woman who was killed abroad after fleeing domestic violence.
“Women who are abused at home in Saudi Arabia have no protection, so they have to leave the country,” she told the BBC.
She also: “I’m not saying that’s what’s going on here; I’m just saying that we need to look into it thoroughly. It’s hard to deal with not knowing anything.”
The Sydney Morning Herald said that there were signs that something wasn’t right.
The paper said that the women told the building manager that they thought their food deliveries were being messed with last year.
A plumber who went to the apartment said he thought “something strange” was going on and that the police had been called before because people were worried about the women.
On Wednesday, New South Wales Police asked the public again, saying that “any piece of information” could be the key to solving this case.
Police said in a statement that the neighborhood is close-knit and asked anyone who may have known or seen the women come forward.
In 2019, the Australian news show Four Corners found that 80 Saudi women had tried to get asylum in Australia over the past few years. Many of them were trying to get away from male guardianship laws.
