When Mrs Badria Abu Meri was arrested in May 2010, media reported that she had been taken into custody for her own protection. Several weeks before the arrest, a mob lynched a man accused of murder in Mrs Abu Meri's hometown and, as many believed she had instigated the latter to carry out the gruesome homicide, it was said that she might be the object of further acts of self-administered justice. However, it is now apparent that she was in fact quite simply arrested and detained without any legal basis.