A1SaudiArabia.com

<br/> <br/> JEDDAH &ndash; The Jeddah Governorate announced Monday that it stopped a prominent real-estate businessman from demolishing a wall at an Eid prayer ground in the city&rsquo;s Al-Bawadi District.<br/> The businessman claims to have a title deed showing that he owns a 1,200-square-meter part of the prayer ground and said he obtained the document three years ago.<br/> Field teams from the Jeddah Mayoralty, accompanied by security patrols, stopped the businessman from completing the wall&rsquo;s demolition and made him agree to follow up the matter with the Mayoralty. The businessman later withdrew machinery he brought to the site. The teams acted after a tip-off from Al-Bawadi residents that the businessman started razing part of the prayer ground.<br/> Neighborhood residents Awad Al-Otaibi, Jam&rsquo;an Al-Zahrani, Ahmad Al-Ghamdi and Talal Al-Jad&rsquo;ani said the prayer ground was set up 50 years ago, long before the area was approved for residences. The site was used as a parking lot and also for public services for residents, who set up an Eid prayer ground.<br/> They said the businessman contacted them two years ago to convince them that he owned the site, in preparation for razing part of it, but they stood firm in opposing his plan.<br/> Residents asked authorities to stop the man from taking over part of the prayer ground, which is owned by the Jeddah Mayoralty as a pubic area for the benefit of those who live nearby.<br/> Four months ago, the residents submitted a petition to the Jeddah Governorate after an engineering consultation office made a plan to offer the prayer ground for sale or construct shops on it. On the basis of this petition, the Governorate asked the Jeddah Mayoralty about the issue and learned that the prayer ground is a public area and that part of it is used for a car parking lot. Mayoralty officials also confirmed that no part of the site is under private ownership.<br/> The businessman, who said he has a construction permit from the Jeddah Mayoralty produced a title deed issued three years ago by the Shariah Court in Jeddah. &ndash; Okaz/SG

JEDDAH – An appeals court in Jeddah has upheld prison sentences set by the Shariah Court for six persons found guilty of robbing elderly persons and women of handbags and other possessions. Court sources said that the convicted, who had confessed to the charges, were all aged between 20 and 25, and that four of them were of Yemeni nationality. One admitted to stealing handbags from 20 women, and another to stealing a wallet containing SR9,000. The six were sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison and 3,000 lashes of the whip. – Okaz/SG

RIYADH – The Court of Cassation attested Saturday a Shariah verdict issued by the General Court in Riyadh for three thieves to each receive a seven-year jail term and 700 lashes of the whip.

Al-Naseem Police Station received a report from a Saudi national that his store had been broken into and merchandise, including electronic appliances and games was stolen. DNA tests led to the identification of one culprit and arresting him and two accomplices. The men admitted to the crime of theft and their confessions were attested in the Shariah Court. – Okaz/SG

RIYADH – Saeed Al-Shehri, Al-Qaedas “second man” in the Arabian Peninsula, was mainly instrumental in recruiting women into his deviant organization and to use them in operations against the Kingdom using Yemen as the launching pad.

According to sources, Saeed Al-Shehri was the one who recruited Haila Al-Qusayyer, 47. She was detained by security forces in Buraidah in Al-Qassim Region in March while hiding in one of the houses in Al-Khubaitiah District. The house belonged to a terrorist wanted by the Saudi Ministry of Interior.

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MAKKAH – A 36-year-old divorcee and her 23-year-old eldest daughter are living in a state of fear because the former claims that she has been receiving death threats from five people.

The woman, known only as MQ, has claimed that she has been told by her neighbors that her ex-husband has offered SR10,000 to have her and their eldest daughter killed. This is because she had complained about him to the police over visitation rights to her children.

Her two children living with her ex-husband, an 18-year-old son and 20-year-old daughter, have also threatened her because they have taken the side of their father, she claims.

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TAIF – An elderly woman here has criticized the courts for allegedly failing to resolve a dispute over her inheritance which she had filed in 2007.

The 72-year-old Sadya said that she had just recently been to court without getting any resolution to her complaint.

In 2007 she claimed that the Shariah Court in Baha had scheduled a session to assess the possessions which she inherited from her family.

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JEDDAH – Victims of last years devastating floods have called for an increase in the number of employees who pay out checks because of the delay caused by the overcrowding at the Civil Defenses hall where the compensation is being processed.

Other victims said that more than 200 people should be paid out a day.  This must be done by increasing the list of identity numbers announced each day.

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JEDDAH: Final exams in Saudi public schools ended recently, much to the relief of students and families. It’s not just the pressure of pass or fail, but also the stress that is brought home, according to Mukhtar Muhammad Maulud, the head of the Reconciliation Department in the Makkah General Court, which is responsible for mediating family disputes. End-of-semester exams and Ramadan are the most testing times for family relations, he said the former due to the pressure on students and their families to ensure good grades, and the latter he attributed to the economic stress of the fasting month on Saudi families who tend to host iftar dinners and end the month by buying gifts for the children, new household items and clothes.

Busted selling ‘witchy’ books

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The plight of 300 Bangladeshi workers in Madina, who for three years, have been living in fear of deportation because their new sponsor has declined to provide them with residency permits, apparently as a result of a fallout between him and a co-sponsor, continues to worsen with no clear solutions in sight.

“Of the 300 workers, 129 of us are in Madina and 70 of those 129 are still working with the sponsor. The rest have run away. Moreover, many of us have not gone home for over eight years now,” said one of the workers, requesting anonymity.

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JEDDAH: The chief judge of the Jeddah Summary Court, Sheikh Abdullah Al-Othaim, said he expected the case of blasphemy against Al Arabiya news channel filed by a number of citizens to be referred to the Ministry of Culture and Information to consider.

He, however, told Arab News on Sunday the court would consider the case if it was referred back to it.

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