DAMMAM: A court in Al-Ahsa has sentenced a 19-year-old Saudi youth to five years’ imprisonment and 500 lashes for blackmailing a girl and threatening to publish her photos if she did not go out with him.

Col. Yousuf Al-Qahtani, spokesman for the Eastern Province police, said the teenager was caught by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice after the girl’s brother filed a complaint last month.

He said the court also ordered the young man to return all of the girl’s photos and that if any of her pictures were to appear after that a more severe punishment would be handed out.

Al-Qahtani said the harsh sentence was aimed at deterring others from blackmailing young girls, especially since the prevalence of such crimes has increased of late.