Alleged rape victim Eman al-Obeidy flees Libya

(CNN) -- Eman al-Obeidy, who garnered worldwide attention for her vocal rape allegations against the regime of Moammar Gadhafi, says she has fled Libya, fearing for her safety.

Al-Obeidy told CNN that she crossed into Tunisia on Thursday with the help of a defecting military officer and his family.

She said she left Tripoli in a military car, wearing a head cover that hid everything except one eye.

Al-Obeidy said she entered at the Dahibah border crossing disguised "in the local manner" and was not challenged. She described the trip from Tripoli as "very tiring."

Along the road to Tunisia, the car she was in was stopped several times at check points, al-Obeidy said. The military officer would show his permit and they would be allowed to continue, she said.

Al-Obeidy said she crossed into Tunisia using a refugee document.

European diplomats drove her from the border region to Tunis, and are giving her sanctuary there while she considers her future, according to Western diplomatic sources.

She said she was afraid she was being followed and might still be in danger, adding that she hoped she could obtain protection from a western government.

"I still do not know what I am going to do. Of course I'd like to see my family," she said.

Al-Obeidy burst into the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli on March 26 while international journalists staying there were having breakfast. She told reporters she had been taken from a checkpoint east of Tripoli and held against her will for two days while being beaten and raped by 15 men.

In an interview with CNN last month, she said she felt defeated and lived in fear that she would be punished gravely for her words.

"I usually get harassed when I have to show my Identification card to government officials somewhere and they find out who I am and that I have put complaints forward against Gadhafi's people," she said. "They humiliate me to the point where other people gather around and start saying that it is shameful to treat a Libyan woman that way."

The legal proceedings in her rape case have not gone far, she said last month. She also had not been able to go home.

CNN's Khalil Abdallah contributed to this report.

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