JEDDAH, 9 July 2006 — Police are investigating the beating and robbery of an elderly Saudi man by a group of five men in the southern town of Dhahran Al-Junoub, the daily Al-Watan reported yesterday.
According to local police, the gang beat the old man with sticks and stabbed him. The victim is recovering at a local hospital from a broken collarbone and wounds to his head and body. The bandits stole SR2,500 from him.
The brother of the victim says the same suspects robbed the old man’s house a year ago, but the intervention of tribal chieftains prevented the men from being prosecuted.
Bootleggers Arrested
Criminal investigators in Makkah arrested a gang of bootleggers who were charged with brewing and circulating homemade liquor. The police tracked them to an apartment in Al-Mansour Street and found there several bottles filled with moonshine ready for distribution.
The suspects, all of Burmese origin, said their customers were mostly teenagers. Police raided the hideout following a tip-off, Al-Watan reported yesterday.
Attempt to Smuggle Women Foiled
Police at a checkpoint in Al-Mowaih foiled the attempt by two Saudi brothers to smuggle two Ethiopian women without valid residency documents. The brothers told police that one of the women in hijab was their mother and the other a relative showing the family ID card in which their mother’s name was written. However, the officers were not convinced and further questioning revealed that the women were not their relatives. Taif police arrested the brothers for transporting illegal foreigners, Al-Jazirah reported yesterday.
Expat Hangs Self at Workshop
A Bangladeshi national hanged himself in a workshop in the industrial city in Hauta Bani Tamim, Al-Jazirah newspaper reported yesterday. Colleagues found the Bangladeshi’s body hanging at the end of a rope in the kitchen of the residential part of the workshop. The body is kept in the Hauta General Hospital. Police are investigating the incident. This was the second instance of suicide by hanging at the same workshop in six months.
Man Killed, Four Hurt in Accident
A motorist speeding to get to a wedding reception in good time was killed and his wife, three daughters and maid were injured in an accident, Al-Watan reported yesterday. The vehicle slammed into a concrete divider that was partitioning the main road from the service road.
Civil Defense officials took the survivors to King Abdul Aziz Specialist Hospital in Taif. One passenger is in critical condition.
In another incident, a man died and his three passengers were critically wounded when the car they were in slammed into the back of a water truck on the Hauta Bani Tamim-Aflah road in the Central Region, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported.
