JEDDAH, 1 May — Police arrested three Saudi brothers near the country’s border with Jordan on Sunday for kidnapping a Jordanian woman who they claimed was their sister.
The three had abducted 53-year-old Samrah ten days ago from Wadi Ram in Jordan and taken her to their tribal homeland in the Tabuk region. In a telephone interview, Tabuk Governor Prince Fahd ibn Sultan said the arrests were made without serious resistance from the tribespeople.
The intriguing story has its roots in an incident which took place some 40 years ago. A four-year-old girl strayed from her home in the grazing land near the Saudi-Jordanian border. She fell into the hands of another tribe on the Saudi side of the border. Both parties engaged in a long legal battle for the custody of the child.
The case dragged on until 1962 when the Jordanian authorities put the girl in the custody of a third party. A court, after 46 sittings, finally ruled that the girl belonged to the Jordanian tribe. Now a grown-up woman, she had married and had eight children.
Prince Fahd was surprised at the Saudi tribe still trying to get back the woman after passage of so many years. “I don’t know why the case has been raised now after the issue was settled over 40 years ago,” the prince said.
The three brothers are currently being interrogated by Saudi police. They face charges of kidnapping and violating regulations pertaining to border crossing. The trio will be punished according to the Shariah if found guilty, the prince added.
Prince Fahd said the Jordanian authorities, particularly, acting Minister of Interior Eid Al-Fayez cooperated fully in the investigations. Several tribes live on the borders of the Kingdom with Jordan and Iraq.
Youths flogged: Three young Saudi men received 15 lashes each in public for teasing girls in a market, as part of a drive by authorities to curb harassment of women, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported yesterday.
The men were caught by special police teams deployed at Riyadh’s shopping centers, markets and girls’ schools in a bid to stop increasing levels of harassment of women.
