JEDDAH, 7 December 2007 — The Court of Cassation repealed the death sentence issued by a Jeddah court against Faisal Al-Otaibi (aka “Abu Kab”, or “Father of the baseball cap,”) the joy rider who was convicted of killing three children who were in his car while he was performing a driving stunt that went wrong, the daily Al-Eqtisadiah reported yesterday.

“The Court of Cassation was right to revoke the death sentence,” said Al-Otaibi’s lawyer, Khalid Abu Rashed. “They responded to my objection. We will follow up the case as soon as it reaches the Jeddah court.”

The Cassation Court judges determined that the death sentence by the Jeddah court judges was too extreme for the crime. The case will now go back to the Jeddah court next week where the judges can dispute the Cassation Court’s decision.

If that happens, the Cassation Court can request the three-judge panel of the Jeddah court be replaced with another to review the case and issue their decision.

In its rebuttal, the Cassation Court said that one of the reasons for its decision was that the person in the vehicle that Al-Otaibi collided with in the accident, which occurred in Jeddah in 2005, was never questioned or asked to attend the trial.

The case of “Abu Kab” has garnered considerable attention due to the severity of the punishment. In the past, joy riders who have caused fatal accidents through their stupidity in using public roads as their personal stunt-driving racetracks have been sentenced to months in prison and the payment of blood money to the bereaved families. The death sentence by the Jeddah court has been a response to the increasing public outrage over joyriding activities among young Saudi men.

The details of this case go back to 2005 when Al-Otaibi, a young naval officer, rented a car and with passengers in his vehicle performed a so-called “drifting” stunt at 120 kph that resulted in a collision with another vehicle and the death of the three passengers.

The family of the one of the boys forgave Al-Otaibi while the family of the other boys, two brothers, insisted on the death sentence. Opponents to this decision said the boys were all willing participants in the incident and that Al-Otaibi did not premeditate their deaths, and therefore it wasn’t a capital offense under Shariah.

The case now revolves around how the judges interpret the severity of the crime itself and its over-arching social implications.

The Cassation Court replaced the death sentence with a prison term and lashes based on the taazir ruling, which is a judicial interpretation of Shariah law that determines a punishment based on how detrimental the crime is to society as a whole rather than a punishment explicitly stated in Shariah.

For example, drinking alcohol has an explicit punishment in Shariah, 80 lashes, but Saudi Arabia issues the death sentence for drug trafficking based on a taazir interpretation, which can be done because the texts don’t explicitly state what the exact punishment for that more serious crime should be.

Faisal Abdullah, a former joy rider, said that he agrees with the decision to reduce the sentence. “He did not commit murder, and he didn’t force them into his car,” he said, adding that he believes a long prison term would be sufficient.

Abdul Rahman Al-Zahrani, a Saudi university student, agreed. “Joy riding, in my opinion, is not a major crime, it is a traffic violation,” he said.