Death sentence revoked

The Makkah Court of Appeal has revoked a death sentence of a Filipino driver who caused a traffic accident while driving in the wrong direction on Haramain Road.
The General Court of Jeddah had sentenced the driver to death for causing the death of a Saudi family, a local newspaper reported. The Filipino driver was driving in violation of the direction of traffic with the intent of committing suicide, running the red light at seven crossings along the way hoping to crash into a truck during the process and die but instead causing the death of the family.
Maj. Gen. Muhammad Al-Qahtani earlier said that the driver had confessed that he had had a dispute with his employer for failing his driving test for the second time, but further investigation with him revealed that he has other deep-rooted differences with his fiancee and claimed to be experiencing emotional shock and mental illness.
Prior to the accident, the driver took a bus with 15 other colleagues to perform dawn prayers at the mosque of their work facility. He took over the bus with the intention of committing suicide. Two of his colleagues jumped out of the bus to safety but were badly injured. The other passengers had left the vehicle when the driver stopped for a few moments on the way.