JEDDAH, 6 November — Shariah courts will hand down deterrent punishments to those who spread anthrax rumors or use suspicious-looking powders to frighten and confuse people, newspapers said yesterday.
Anyone making false reports about the terrible disease, even for fun, will be flogged and jailed for up to one year, Mazahar Al-Qarni, president of the Shariah courts in the Baha province, was quoted by Al-Madinah as saying.
The Baha police are currently investigating a case in which an expat received a letter containing a suspicious white powder. Laboratory tests proved that it was not harmful.
In a more bizarre incident, a hospital employee in Dammam was made so paranoid by the reports about anthrax that he imagined a bill he received for his mobile phone contained the killer bacteria.
The envelope in fact contained no powder whatsoever, said Dr. Ahmad Ali, director general of health affairs in the Eastern Province.
