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JEDDAH – A Saudi woman has divorced her husband through the courts after discovering that he had married another lady.

According to Al-Watan Arabic daily, the woman in her 40s took her case to Jeddahs General Court after she found out that her husband of 20 years had taken a second wife and was thereby in violation of one of the conditions of their original marriage contract. The Court of Cassation later upheld the divorce ruling.

The woman, who is the mother of the mans four children, had included in their marriage contract a condition that he never take a second wife and also that she could divorce him if it transpired he had been married to anyone before.

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RIYADH – The Court of Cassation here has approved a General Court verdict against a man found guilty of stealing a car at gunpoint. The court upheld the sentence of ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes of the whip. The culprit was caught after an expatriate reported to the police that he was intercepted by the thief who at gunpoint took his car and drove away. After a hot chase, security patrols finally nabbed the man who, having abandoned the car, was trying to flee on foot. – Okaz/SG

JIZAN – The spokesman for the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the Hai’a) in Jizan has denied that a man recently sentenced to lashes for having six wives was a member of the organization.
Spokesman Muhammed Bin Ali Al-Adhabi told Al-Madina Arabic daily that the 56-year-old was not a security guard, as reported, “at any of the Hai’a offices” and that he has “no connection at all to the field or administrative work of the Commission”.
Al-Adhabi told Al-Madina that it was the Hai’a itself that arrested the man in Ahad Al-Masareha after they received information and located him at a furnished flat. During questioning contradictions were revealed in his statements and “deception” uncovered in a family identity card, Al-Adhabi said. He added that the court ruling of 120 lashes of the whip was final and had been approved by the Court of Cassation.
The court ruled that the sentence be carried out in three phases of 40 lashes, with a minimum of 15 days between each. The sentence also includes a five-year ban on travel abroad and also bans the convicted from giving sermons or leading prayer in mosques.
The convicted man claimed he was unaware that marriage to six wives simultaneously was against Shariah Law.
Neighbors of the man, however, say they had heard he had six wives and also believed him to be a member of the Hai’a.
“He used to lead prayer at the mosque in the village where he lived, and would go round in an official Hai’a car telling people to pray,” Khalid Al-Hukami told Al-Madina. “We’d heard about him, but didn’t think he would have had six wives at the same time, as here in the south lots of people have more than one wife and get married and divorced all the time.” – SG

MADINA – An investigation has been ordered by Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Majed Bin Abdul Aziz, Emir of Madina, into the reasons for the illegal detention of a lawyer for 22 days in a Madina prison.

The General Court in Madina had ordered the release of the lawyer Abdul Rahman Al-Findi.

The court also started a probe into the legality of his imprisonment by the General Investigation and Prosecution Commission.

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RIYADH – The Court of Cassation in Riyadh upheld on Monday a ruling sentencing three persons each to seven years in prison and 700 lashes of the whip for stealing iron, electrical equipment and scrap metal. The three had been caught in the act of stealing over a ton and a half of materials from a warehouse and loading them on to a pick-up truck. They were also found in the possession of a driving license belonging to a foreign man who a day earlier had been on duty as a security guard at a warehouse when he was attacked and robbed. – Okaz/SG

JEDDAH – A former judge has launched an appeal in the Court of Cassation in Riyadh against his sentence of 10 months imprisonment and 120 lashes for writing false complaints.

Braikan Al-Braikan, the lawyer of the former judge, who is being held in the Al-Rass Governorate Prison, filed on Monday his clients objection to his sentence.

His sentence by the Al-Rass Court in the Al-Qassim Region, includes time in prison and for the 120 lashes to take place with bare head and feet. His name would be announced in a public place and he would not be entitled to a pardon. He was found guilty of filing false complaints on behalf of citizens and belittling legal personalities.

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Al-RAS – The husband of the woman who was sentenced to one-and-a half years in prison and 300 lashes for filing false complaints against government officials has demanded the immediate release of his wife, describing her detention as illegal.

The verdict has not been approved by a higher court yet, said Saleh Al-Thawwab. The convicted woman is currently being held in the womens prison in Buraidah with their baby girl, “which has caused her psychological complications”, he added.

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JUBAIL – The female student recently sentenced to 90 lashes and two months in jail for assaulting her headmistress and threatening to kill her has the right to appeal the verdict, Sheikh Riyadh Al-Muhaidib, President of Jubail Governorate Court, has said.

The student can move the Court of Cassation for reconsideration of the verdict even though it has become final after approval of the parties.

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JEDDAH – A court in Al-Ras has sentenced a judge to 10 months in jail and 120 lashes for writing “false complaints” against Saudi nationals so as to belittle legal personalities.

Also, the ruling will not come under the pardon granted to persons currently in prison.

The case, reported in Saudi Gazette on Thursday, concerns a Saudi woman convicted by a District Court in Al-Ras of lodging false complaints against government officials and with making visits to government offices over a case against her husband without the company of a legal male guardian.

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Sentence should be overturned, says consultant

JEDDAH – A legal consultant has said that the sentencing of a woman in Al-Ras to one and a half years in prison and 300 lashes of the whip – with the threat of being stripped of her Saudi nationality on any repeat offence – can be overturned by the Court of Cassation.

“The ruling should, and will most probably, be overturned by the Court of Cassation, and what she has allegedly done – if true – can come under the pardon granted to persons currently in prison,” said lawyer and legal advisor Omar Al-Khouli.

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