YANBU, 30 September 2003 — A court has sentenced two men to three years in jail and 3,000 lashes for attacking members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

The two men were arrested after they and 11 others attacked members of the commission in order to rescue two girls and two men from their custody. One of the girls escaped.

After their arrest the two men alleged members of the commission had been beating and pulling the hair of one of the girls they had earlier arrested on the beach on suspicion of not being related to the men in their company.

The commission denies any wrongdoing.