Fadi Ibrahim Haqwi traveled to Yemen to attend a friend’s wedding but was involved in the accident on the second day of his arrival. Since then he has been imprisoned in Hudaidah General Prison.

All five Yemeni victims who were injured in the incident have been reportedly treated and discharged from hospital and their car fixed.

However, Haqwi remains behind bars because the victims are demanding compensation of 15 million Yemeni riyals (SR250,000), which he is unable to pay.

Haqwi’s mother, who lives in the Beesh region in Jazan province, has urged the government to help secure the release of her son.

On that fateful day her son rented a car to go to the wedding but hit a parked minibus, causing injuries to the five people on board.

“The injured passengers were taken to hospital where four of them were treated at my son’s expense. After they were treated and discharged, they demanded about SR300,000 in compensation but the amount was later reduced to SR250,000,” said the mother.

She said she traveled to Yemen with her other son Hassan and went to the local attorney general’s office. He told her all the victims had been taken care of. “From there I went to the Saudi Embassy where I was told that they knew about the accident as my son had told them the very first day,” she said.

The mother said an official at the embassy told her that Yemeni authorities were demanding $20,000 per head (SR75,000) and that the mission would not pay more than SR10,000.

She said she asked him why the victims were demanding this large amount of money when no one was killed or crippled in the accident. She said the embassy told her that they had appointed a Yemeni lawyer to follow up the case.

The mother said she also contacted the Jazan governorate and Beesh authorities looking for a solution to her son’s predicament but kept receiving conflicting answers every time.

“I also contacted the Interior Ministry but nothing has happened so far. My husband is a poor man and we live on the little money we get from social security. I offered our house for sale to help my son but so far there has been no buyer,” she said.

An Al-Madinah reporter met Haqwi, who claimed a representative from the embassy did not visit him even though he had contacted diplomats about the accident the very first day.

He said his mother and Hassan visited him in prison, but they had no money for bail.

The Yemeni attorney general for traffic Abdullah bin Muhammad Aamouah said the case, which would be referred to him by the traffic police after completion of procedures, would focus on the charge of causing injury to others accidentally. He said after that it would be referred to the traffic court.

Judge Abdullah bin Mahmoud Al-Shimairi, president of the traffic court, said he decided to release Haqwi on bail in the first hearing but there was no one to guarantee him.

He said the defendant asked him to delay the verdict because he was trying to end the case through mediation and was waiting for his father to come and help him.

“I delayed the verdict to give time for mediation efforts. All the case papers were ready and we were just waiting for anyone to come and help him in cooperation with the embassy. The claimants asked for 15 million Yemeni riyals but it was left to the discretion of the court to decide the compensation amount,” the judge said.

The newspaper contacted the embassy and was told by one of the staff there that the ambassador knew about the case.