Saudi female journalist sentenced to 60 lashes
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Sunday, October 25, 2009
RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA -- A Saudi court on Saturday sentenced a female journalist to 60 lashes after she had been charged with involvement in a TV show in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex.
Rozana al-Yami, 22, is thought to be the first Saudi female journalist to be given such a punishment, but there were conflicting accounts about how the court issued its verdict.
Al-Yami, who worked as a coordinator for the program but has denied working on the sex-show episode, said it was her understanding that the judge at the court in the western city of Jeddah had dropped the charges against her. They included involvement in the preparation of the show and in advertising the segment on the Internet.
But she said he still handed down the lashing sentence "as a deterrence."
"I am too frustrated and upset to appeal the sentence," al-Yami said.
She declined to provide contact details for her attorney so he could be asked about the legal proceedings, including the basis in Islamic law for the punishment and whether the charges were really dropped.
Sulaiman al-Jumeii, the attorney for the man who appeared on the TV show, said such "physical punishment is not an indication of innocence or a drop of charges."
"If the judge had dropped the charges, then why did he give her the 60 lashes?" he added.
Abdul-Rahman al-Hazza, a spokesman for the Ministry of Culture and Information, said he had no details of the sentencing and could not comment on it.
In the program, which aired in July on the Lebanese LBC satellite channel, the man, Mazen Abdul-Jawad, appears to describe an active sex life and shows sex toys that were blurred by the station. The same court sentenced him this month to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes.
Jumeii maintains that his client was duped by the TV station and was unaware in many cases that he was being recorded.
The case has scandalized this ultraconservative country, where such public talk about sex is taboo and the sexes are strictly segregated.
The government moved swiftly in the wake of the case, shutting down LBC's two offices in the kingdom and arresting Abdul-Jawad, who works for the national airline.
Three other men who appeared on the show, "Bold Red Line," were convicted of discussing sex publicly and sentenced to two years in prison and 300 lashes each.
