RIYADH, 7 January 2005 — Two young Saudis have been sentenced by the high court here to prison terms and flogging for orchestrating and filming a Nigerian driver sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl, Al-Watan newspaper reported yesterday.
Judge Muhammad ibn Abdullah Al-Luhaidan sentenced the main defendant, Barjis ibn Faleh, 27, to 12 years imprisonment and 1,200 lashes, while compatriot Abdulrahman ibn Haif, 22, was sentenced to two years and 200 lashes, Al-Watan reported.
“The Nigerian driver who appeared in the film, Youssef Abkar Mohammad Abdullah, was sentenced to a six-year imprisonment and 600 lashes,” the paper said.
The scandal, which shocked the conservative Saudi society, broke out after the accused circulated footage of the assault through mobile phones equipped with cameras.
The trio used the camera phone Panda and distributed the phone clip using Blue Tooth and on websites.
The trio came to be known as the Panda gang.
The phone clip shows the girl pleading as she is assaulted by the driver, while one of the two young men, apparently her former boyfriend, hurls abuse at her.
Legal sources told Al-Watan that the high court’s decision was not final and that the accused could appeal the decision to the supreme judicial council which will issue a final decision.
Sources also told Al-Watan that the lashes would not be delivered at one go but would be distributed every Friday until the punishment is completed.
The two Saudis were arrested last July after the girl’s family lodged a complaint.
Many people in Saudi Arabia had expressed anger at the men’s behavior on Internet sites. They had demanded tough punishment for the three so it will be a lesson to everyone.
Once the video clip was distributed, the police arrested the three gang members and detained them in Al-Sulaimaneya prison for investigation and later transferred to Al-Hayer prison southeast of Riyadh.
