JEDDAH, 4 November — The Court of Grievances in the Eastern Province has sentenced eight security officers found guilty of corruption charges to a maximum of five years in jail and SR5,000 fine.

The court acquitted 20 other officers charged with various offenses and irregularities, including bribery, forgery and embezzlement, for want of sufficient evidence.

Investigators from the Supervision and Investigation Department in the province had brought the charges against the 28 officers early this year after monitoring their activities for some time.

The jail terms for the eight officers ranged from one year to five years depending on the degree of their involvement in the crime. They were also fined a maximum of SR5,000.

A copy of the verdict has been sent to the department where the convicted officers had been posted, an informed source said.

He said the court carefully examined all the evidences presented by the Supervision and Investigations Department against the defendants before handing out the verdict.

The defendants were given a chance to disprove the charges against them.

They have 30 days to appeal the verdicts.

The department put the officials under watch following complaints that they had been colluding with some people who violated the law to make money.

A Najran court recently reinstated a Passport Department official who was dismissed from the service for allegedly permitting foreigners to enter the country without valid travel document through the region’s airport.

The official was dismissed by the Passport Department following an inquiry.

The court allowed a petition by the official to repeal the punishment claiming that he did not commit the crime intentionally.

The court accepted the officer’s argument that he could not have detected the forgery in the documents without the help of advanced equipment and absolved him of the charges.

As part of continued efforts to bring the corrupt officials in the security and civil services to book, the authorities meanwhile have taken action against a traffic department official who was accused of registering false cases of traffic violations against innocent people.

The official has been asked to pay the fines imposed on these people as he wrongly recorded their offenses.