JEDDAH, 7 June 2007 — The lawyer defending a young Saudi who faces execution for the negligent death of three boys and injury of two others in a stunt-driving accident succeeded this week in filing an appeal at the Court of Cassation against a previous court decision.

“The court hearing was a big relief for Abo Kab and his family,” said defense lawyer Khaled Abu Rashid after the Monday hearing, referring to defendant Faisal Fouzan Al-Otaibi, a former police officer who goes by the nickname Abo Kab, which means “father of the (baseball) cap”.

“It gave them big hopes that he could live and we pray for that,” Abu Rashid added.

Abu Rashid, who became Al-Otaibi’s lawyer on Feb. 22 after the death sentence was given, is hoping a blood money agreement can be made with the families of the deceased and injured.

The lawyer claims that the police reports from the scene of the car accident in 2005 are inadequate evidence against the defendant. He said an appeals hearing date would be set in the coming days.

The heavy punishment for the crime of negligence has come as Saudi Arabia grapples with a trend among young Saudi men to perform stunt-driving maneuvers that has resulted in many deaths and injuries in recent years.

Al-Otaibi was performing a drifting maneuver — in which a car’s hand brake is applied at high speeds to cause the vehicle to slide in a certain way — when he lost control of his vehicle, killing his three passengers and injuring two bystanders.

“There was no intent on behalf of Abo Kab to kill his friends,” said Abu Rashid. “They rode with him willingly and he himself was in grief for their death.”

The lawyer says that because this is a case of negligence and stupidity and not a conscious act of murder, the death penalty shouldn’t apply. The lawyer proposes that if this ruling is upheld it would set up a legal precedent for issuing the death penalty for drivers involved in fatal vehicular accidents.

Some columnists have pointed out that the verdict is an attempt to send a message to young Saudi men who are increasingly using public streets as stunt-driving venues that they will be held to strict standards when it comes to deaths related to joyriding.