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Appeals court yet to issue verdict in Sawa scam
Filed under NewsOct 23JEDDAH: A final decision has not yet been made in the case of the mastermind of the Sawa scam, Abdul Aziz Al-Jihani, according to his legal representative.
I learned from the Jeddah Summary Court on Wednesday that the Appeals Court did not make its final decision on the appeal against the summary courts 20-year sentence, Hisham Hanbouli told Arab News, denying reports that the appeal had been rejected by the higher court.
More than 40,000 investors were cheated out of more than SR1 billion relating to Sawa telephone cards about three years ago. Thirty-three other accomplices were handed punishments between three months and five years.
Hanbouli said the case has been referred again to the appeals court to consider new evidence. The lawyer believed the length of sentence did not reflect his clients role in the scam.
On the basis of detailed reports on the case submitted by the Investigations and Prosecution Commission, the Jeddah Summary Court found Al-Jihani and his accomplices guilty and issued its verdict in May.
Three police officers involved in the scam are serving five years in jail and ordered to return SR800,000, while another was sentenced to a years imprisonment and was asked to return SR10 million that he received from Al-Jihani. The court acquitted a Border Guard colonel for lack of evidence.
However, Al-Jihani has not given any clue of what has happened to over SR1.3 billion in illegal earnings. An investigations committee succeeded in recovering only SR190 million in assets.
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