The Jeddah Administrative Court has convicted four men who embezzled funds allocated for relief activities following flooding disasters in the city.
Two men were handed five years in jail and fined SR 100,000 each.
The third received three years in jail and a SR 200,000 fine.
The fourth was sentenced to one year in jail and fined SR 50,000.
Some of them were government officials and one of them a non-Saudi.
The charges against them included tampering with or forging 23 bills related to payments for a campaign to tackle dengue fever and embezzling public money. The convicts will appeal the verdict.
Before issuing the verdict the sitting judge listened to what the defendants had to say.
The first defendant refuted all charges against him and said he did not agree with the charges against him.
He said the bills in question were not written or signed by him and requested samples of his handwriting to be studied to prove his innocence.
He also denied the accusation that he deposited S R5 million in his account. He argued the money was deposited by the municipality for official purposes.
He said it was the municipality’s practice to deposit large amounts of cash in a responsible official’s account so the money could be administered for various projects. The second defendant argued he had nothing to do with the preparation or forgery of bills nor did he handle cash as his job was only to submit studies to combat dengue fever.
He told the judge that he signed a confession statement under duress.
The third defendant said the money was deposited in his account officially and that he issued checks for the same amount to various authorities.
He added that he received checks from the mayor to spend on crisis management programs.
He also said he fully refunded the money he received to travel abroad on official business because he could not make the journey.
The fourth defendant said he had no comment to make.
