JEDDAH: The Summary Court here sentenced Wednesday the 32-year-old Saudi sex braggart Mazen Abdul Jawad to five years imprisonment and 1,000 lashes to be executed in installments for boasting about his sexual exploits on the LBC weekly program “Bold Red Line” in mid-July.
Judge Sheikh Muhammad Amin Mirdad also confiscated the car Abdul Jawad is seen in the program using to cruise the streets looking for girls. The mobile phone Abdul Jawad said he used to hit on women using Bluetooth was also taken by the state. Once he has completed his prison time, Abdul Jawad will be forbidden from traveling abroad for five years.
Abdul Jawad’s lawyer, Sulaiman Al-Jumaie, described the verdict as “hasty and made under public pressure.” In a statement sent to Arab News, the lawyer said the case is not yet closed and that he would appeal the verdict within 10 days.
Three other men, who also appeared in the TV segment but did not make any statements, were determined by the judge to be accomplices and sentenced to two years and 300 lashes each. All four men will also be subjected to court-ordered counseling.
Anas Al-Khodari, the producer of the segment, was sentenced to two months as time served and then released.
Al-Jumaie has insisted all along that this is a matter for the Ministry of Culture and Information to review. He filed a complaint on behalf of his client against LBC for allegedly editing down and re-contextualizing a long video shoot into a minutes-long segment aimed at portraying Abdul Jawad in the worst possible light. The lawyer contends that the court should have waited until the complaint with the ministry was resolved.
Al-Jumaie also criticized the ruling for not summoning anyone from LBC. Malik Maktabi, the host of “Bold Red Line,” would not comment on the case.
