RIYADH, 26 February 2007 — After hearing the death sentence passed down last week to a young Saudi who killed three young men and injured two others while driving his car recklessly for sport in 2005, the parents of the victims of a similar incident have called for the head of that perpetrator.
Joy riding, as it is called, has become an alarming trend among bored, car-owning Saudi youths who use public streets as stages for high-speed stunt driving. A young man who is being cited in the local media by his nickname Al-Hanooti (“The Undertaker”) is in the process of being tried for killing four young men during a joy-riding incident in 2006 in Riyadh.
The Al-Hanooti case is similar to the one involving Abu Kab Al-Otaibi, who was found guilty of killing three young boys and injuring two when he lost control of his vehicle during a stunt maneuver. That death sentence is currently in the appeals process and the lawyer Khaled Abu Rashid is calling for clemency, saying that his client is guilty of manslaughter (accidental death due to negligence) and should not be put to death as if he were a murderer.
Parents of the four dead men (two sets of brothers who are related to each other as cousins) said the death penalty ruling has given them hope that Al-Hanooti will eventually face the sword for his crime. Aid Al-Otaibi, the father of Safar and Adam, who were both killed in last year’s accident, said in a report published in yesterday’s Al-Riyadh daily that death is the just punishment for such a fatal act of negligence and stupidity. “My sons lost their lives because a joy rider was having a little bit of fun in his car,” he said.
Naif Al-Otaibi, the father of Talal and Mansour who were also killed in that accident, said that the severity of the outcome — that two sets of related brothers died when Al-Hanooti lost control of his vehicle and collided with the car they were driving in — must be taken into consideration when determining the punishment. Furthermore, he pointed out that Al-Hanooti fled the scene of the accident instead of trying to determine if any of the men in the vehicle he hit were alive and in need of rescue.
The fathers of the four men have also implored authorities to find the accomplices that aided and abetted Al-Hanooti’s escape and helped him hide from police.
Eyewitnesses to the accident claim that when they attempted to provide a description and license plate number of the vehicle in which Al-Hanooti fled the accident scene, the responding police officer refused to take down their information, saying it was none of their business.
