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CAIRO – Security officials in Egypt are questioning Muhammad Shaban Abdul Maboud about a revenge killing of Muhammad Jaber Al-Fahaid, a Saudi national with Qatari citizenship, which took place after Al-Fahaid shot his two half sisters and killed one of them following an argument they had about an inheritance, authorities said.

After the shooting, Maboud intentionally shot himself so he would be admitted to a hospital where Al-Fahaid was being treated – for injuries he sustained when neighbors beat him after he shot his half sisters – and took revenge by stabbing him six times in the chest, according to authorities.

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NEW YORK - Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has been ordered to pay $20.6 million to scammed investors who say the investment bank should have known about the pyramid scheme pulled off by the collapsed Bayou Hedge Funds.

A three-person arbitration panel of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority held the banks Goldman Sachs Execution and Clearing unit, formerly known as Spear Leeds and Kellogg, liable in the dispute.

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DUBAI -Abu Dhabi police have foiled an attempt by three Iranians to defraud the United Arab Emirates central bank of 14.4 billion dollars, the official WAM news agency reported on Saturday.

Suspected ringleader Farzin Ali Karoryan Mutlaq remains at large in Iran, while two men whose initials were given as E.H.K. and Iranian-American N.A.B. are under arrest, WAM quoted Colonel Hammad Ahmed al-Hammadi, head of the Abu Dhabi police Criminal Investigation Department (CID), as saying.

E.H.K. and N.A.B. allegedly presented fake documents claiming Mutlaq “has property investments worth 14.4 billion dollars and that the amount was transferred to the UAE from Germany through the central bank,” WAM quoted Rashid Mohammed Burasheed, head of the CIDs organized crime unit, as saying. E.H.K. had power of attorney to receive the money and transfer it to Mutlaq, who is wanted by Interpol, he said.

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JEDDAH – A Saudi man has approached the Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Makkah with a complaint against the Saudi consulate in Alexandria, Egypt, accusing it of failing in its duties to “protect him from swindling, threats and physical attack”.

Ashraf Al-Aitani, a 60-year-old Saudi, says he bought two apartments from an official employed at an unnamed consulate in Alexandria for SR1 million, but that the seller then “hired an armed gang” to forcibly evict him and his family after he and the seller had an argument over an unrelated issue.

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RIYADH – A US Federal District Court has ruled in favor of the defunct Riyadh-based Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation (AHIF) branch in Ashland, Oregon and two of its officers including Engr. Solaiman Al-Buthi, the incumbent Director of the Environmental Health Department of Riyadh Municipality.
Al-Buthi hailed the US court verdict saying it was the first step in a long legal battle to clear the AHIF branch in Oregon of all charges, as there are three more cases pending in the US court.
“I am one of the founders of the AHIF branch in Ashland, Oregon and would like to see its name cleared of all charges leveled against it without any valid evidence,” Al-Buthi told Saudi Gazette.
He said after the 9/11 events in the US, the maxim that “(one is) innocent until proven guilty” was changed to read “guilty until proven innocent and that’s what we are trying to do”.
He said that not only the AHIF branch in Ashland, Oregon but all Saudi charities that were operating elsewhere in the world had no links whatsoever with any terror organizations including Al-Qaeda.
The Saudi charities were engaged in the noble cause of helping the needy and deserving members of society and it would be better for the US Administration to resolve any pending issues through mutual cooperation rather than legal battles fought in the court of law, he said.
AHIF, a renowned Riyadh-based international charity that once had more than 70 branches worldwide, sued the US government over the wiretapping program conducted without warrant by the Bush administration.
In his 45-page decision, Judge Vaughn Walker ruled in favor of the AHIF branch in Oregon and two of its officers, who had claimed that they were the subject of illegal surveillance by the US government in 2004.
“In a historic ruling, Judge Vaughn Walker of the US Federal District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco ruled in favor of a US branch of AHIF and two of its lawyers that had sued George W. Bush, former US president and senior government officials for illegally intercepting telephone conversations between Saudi national Solaiman Al-Buthi and his two attorneys,” a copy of the US court verdict, received by Saudi Gazette, said.
Al-Buthi last visited the US in 2000 as his name was put on that country’s no-fly list. He said he was optimistic that he would clear his name and the image of AHIF as they had not done anything wrong. “The truth will stand out even if it takes a long time,” he said.
The Al-Haramain lawsuit was filed in February 2006 by the US chapter of Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation after it was discovered that a transcript accidentally sent to them in August 2004 derived from illegal wiretapping under the illegal Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP).
AHIF attorney Thomas Nelson hailed the decision and said he will work with the legal team and with the plaintiffs to comply with the judge’s order on pursuing other claims or moving straight to the damages phase, the statement added.
AHIF and the two lawyers will ask for the damages the law allows – $20,200 each, or $100 for each day of illegal surveillance – plus punitive damages and attorneys’ fees. – SG

MADINA – Police here have summoned a lawyer accused of forgery and breach of trust in order to question him over his alleged role in embezzling a sum of SR4.4 million.

Sources said the lawyer exploited a power of attorney given to him by a Madina businessman and received SR2.2 million in rent twice from the businessmans real estate on the citys second ring road.

On both occasions, the lawyer allegedly received checks and deposited them in his personal bank account. The amount was supposedly to be given as blood money to the family of a murdered man.

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WASHINGTON – A top US lawmaker has attacked Toyota for allegedly withholding documents it was legally required to hand over in lawsuits by people injured in accidents in the Japanese auto giants vehicles.

Toyota immediately denied the charge from Democratic Representative Edolphus Towns, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, that its actions betrayed “a systematic disregard for the law.”

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JEDDAH – A leading Saudi scholar believes it is wrong for anyone to try to divorce a woman from her husband based on “tribal incompatibility” as long as the man has been truthful about his background.

Dr. Muhammad Bin Ahmad Al-Saleh, a member of the International Council at Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University, said a wifes family has no right to backtrack and demand a divorce for their daughter under these circumstances.

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DAMMAM – On the orders of Prince Muhammad Bin Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz, Emir of the Eastern Province, the woman who was forced by the courts to separate from her husband due to “tribal incompatibility” was finally reunited with her husband and children Wednesday, putting an end to a four-year saga.

On the Emirs orders Fatima Al-Azazi was released from Dammams Social Protection Home and returned to her husband Mansour Al-Taimani and their children on Wednesday evening, after a court ruling two weeks ago annulling their divorce was slow in being put into effect.

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WASHINGTON – A US judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the families of two detainees who died at the controversial American prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in a case seeking compensation from US officials.

The men, one from Saudi Arabia and the other from Yemen, were found dead in June 2006 in apparent suicides. Their families filed a lawsuit accusing the officials of subjecting the men to torture and abuse before they died at the prison.

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