JEDDAH: A Saudi woman academic appeared in Jeddah’s Summary Court on Tuesday on fraud charges, which involved collecting SR4 million from philanthropists by abusing her position as the head of an unlicensed charity for the disabled.
Court sources said that the woman came to court with her brother and was given a list of charges against her and her brother prepared by the Prosecution and Investigation Commission.
The accusations included exploiting philanthropists to unlawfully collect money and spend it obscurely, establishing a charity under the name of a famous philanthropist without obtaining a formal license from the authorities, storing pornographic pictures in the charity’s computer and not paying rent for the villa where the charity was housed.
Sources said the woman, whose name was not disclosed, denied the charges and asked the judge to give her 10 days to prepare a response.
The judge also asked the concerned authorities to bring the woman’s bank statements to check recent deposits and withdrawals.
