38 Facts About Iman al-Obeidi

Iman al-Obeidi is a former Libyan postgraduate law student who received worldwide media attention during the Libyan Civil War.

Iman al-Obeidi fled Libya with a defecting military officer, who helped her cross into Tunisia, dressed in a Berber tribal costume to hide her identity.

Iman al-Obeidi was initially offered protection by European diplomats in Qatar and applied for refugee status there.

Iman al-Obeidi was later charged with a number of violent offenses, including a February 2014 assault on two patrons at a downtown bar in Boulder, Colorado for which she was convicted in May 2015 of a Class 4 felony.

Iman al-Obeidi was one of ten children born in Tobruk to Aisha and Atik al-Obeidi.

Iman al-Obeidi's mother told CNN that Iman had always wanted to be a journalist, but due to the lack of press freedom in Libya, Iman decided to study law instead.

Iman al-Obeidi told the journalists she had been stopped two days earlier at a checkpoint on Salahiddeen Road in Tripoli, while in a car with her sister's husband, later reported as Salih Hamid al-Aguri.

Iman al-Obeidi named the leader of the group who took her as Mansour Ibrahim Ali.

Iman al-Obeidi said local residents near the place she was held had helped her escape.

Iman al-Obeidi's attackers accused al-Obeidi of being a "traitor to Gaddafi"; two women grabbed table knives to threaten both her and the journalists, one then throwing a blanket over al-Obeidi's head in an attempt to muffle her.

Iman al-Obeidi was finally subdued, dragged out of the hotel, and driven in an unmarked car to an unknown location.

Kaim said Iman al-Obeidi was being held at the headquarters of Libyan National Intelligence, was doing well, and would be provided with legal aid.

Iman al-Obeidi was able to enter the hotel by telling the taxi driver she worked there to get round the restriction on meeting foreign journalists.

Iman al-Obeidi said interrogators pointed guns at her, poured water on her face, threw food at her, and accused her of being a traitor, in an effort to persuade her to retract her statement.

Iman al-Obeidi told Cooper other girls were still being held in the building where she was assaulted, and that local residents had complained to the police about it, but that no one had acted to help them.

Iman al-Obeidi said there was no safe place for her in Tripoli, and that she was unable to leave the house she was staying in; when she tried to, she had been taken to the police station, then released again.

Iman al-Obeidi paid tribute to her family for standing by her, saying they had allowed her sister to study overseas without a male chaperone, and had raised both women well.

Iman al-Obeidi made his office available and sent a car for al-Obeidi.

Iman al-Obeidi told Robertson she had been kidnapped by two cars belonging to the armed forces and the Gaddafi brigades.

Iman al-Obeidi said her hands and legs were tied behind her for two days.

Iman al-Obeidi said she wanted to follow up on her case legally, though when she tried to begin the process in a courthouse, a court employee took a gun and threatened to kill her.

Iman al-Obeidi told Robertson she is an ordinary Libyan citizen, a well-educated, conservative Muslim from a good family, and everything that has been said about her by Libyan state television was a lie.

Iman al-Obeidi said he was related to a public official who was part of Gaddafi's circle, and that she feared he might kill her.

Iman al-Obeidi told NPR that, after the 16-year-old girl held with her untied al-Obeidi's hands and feet, she managed to jump out of a window, covered only in a tablecloth.

Iman al-Obeidi said she grabbed a piece of metal and ran at them, screaming, and they opened the gate for her.

Iman al-Obeidi told NPR she was under intense pressure to recant her allegations; even her own lawyers want her to change her story.

Iman al-Obeidi interviewed government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim, who said al-Obeidi "has a file" proving that she was a prostitute.

Iman al-Obeidi wore a traditional Berber headdress to cross the border, which concealed her face, apart from one eye.

Iman al-Obeidi said that she felt "liberated" now that she was out of Libya.

Iman al-Obeidi had been in Qatar awaiting resettlement as a refugee.

On June 5,2011, her sister announced that the previous day Iman al-Obeidi had been granted asylum in the United States.

In mid-December 2011, Iman al-Obeidi said she suffered from depression and could not find a job.

Iman al-Obeidi visited the Libyan Embassy in Washington, DC and Ambassador Ali Aujali gave her an educational scholarship and health insurance.

In 2012, Iman al-Obeidi lived in Denver where she was studying ESL.

Iman al-Obeidi suggested she was a real hero who deserved to be seated beside the First Lady of the United States during the next State of the Union address.

In February 2014, Iman al-Obeidi was arrested in Boulder, Colorado on a second-degree assault charge after physically attacking two patrons at a downtown bar, seriously wounding one.

However, after violating the terms of that program, Iman al-Obeidi was confined at the Boulder County Jail in January 2015.

On September 2,2015, Iman al-Obeidi was sentenced in Boulder District Court to 6 years in prison for the February 2014 assault.