JEDDAH, 4 September 2006 — The General Court in Jeddah has delayed the inquiry into a drag racing accident in which three youngsters died and one was seriously injured. The new date for the hearing has been set after two weeks when a final judgment in the case will be issued.

The three intermediate school students were in a hired car driven by a famous drag racer known as Abu Cap when the accident took place.

Abu Cap, who is a military officer in his 30s, apparently drove the three youngsters to a popular drag racing area 35 kilometers north of Jeddah.

While performing a stunt that went wrong the three young boys died and a spectator was left seriously injured.

Badr Al-Khathilah, the father of two of the boys, called on the authorities to quickly conclude the trial while the father of the third victim dropped his case and has rejected financial compensation offered by the family of the defendant.

Al-Khathilah said that his sons had called in that day and told him that they wanted to have dinner by the seaside with some friends. “Later that day, their mother told me that she had received a telephone call from a hospital saying they had been involved in an accident. I rushed to the hospital and when I heard from the doctor that they had died I fell unconscious,” he said.

Misfer Al-Ghamdi, a lawyer representing Al-Khathilah and the family of the injured spectator, said that the deaths cannot be considered to be an accident but fall under the Islamic category of Harabah and therefore deserves a severe punishment.

Harabah is a category under which a defendant is shown to be openly careless and responsible for the destroying of public property.

Al-Ghamdi said that the drag racer, Abu Cap, has a notorious history of falling on the wrong side of the law and that his file contains 66 traffic violations. The lawyer also outlined how Abu Cap was known to visit schools distributing leaflets about his drag racing antics and encouraging youngsters to attend his stunts.

“Abu Cap has a website where he advertises his reckless driving and propagates death stunts,” added Al-Ghamdi.