Background: Death, money, politics and a royal pardon

LUCILLE McLauchlan spent 17 months in a Saudi prison after being convicted over the murder of her Australian colleague, Yvonne Gilford.

She and her co-accused, English nurse Deborah Parry, had been held since Christmas Eve 1996, after Ms Gilford was found dead at the King Fahd military hospital complex on 12 December. She had been stabbed, beaten with a hammer, and suffocated.

McLauchlan was arrested at a shopping centre, where she had withdrawn money from an Arab National Bank ATM using Ms Gilford's card, with Parry arrested soon afterwards.Both women confessed to their part in the murder after their arrests, but later recanted, saying their confessions were obtained through physical and sexual abuse by interrogators.

However, in September 1997, they were sentenced. McLauchlan was convicted of being an accomplice in the killing and was given a jail term of eight years and 500 lashes (which were never administered], while Parry was sentenced to death by beheading after being found guilty of murder.

Then prime minister Tony Blair raised the women's case when he visited Saudi Arabia in April 1998 but did not comment on whether he thought they were guilty of the murder.

The following month, McLauchlan and Parry received a royal pardon and were allowed to return home.