JEDDAH: A Saudi woman journalist has been sentenced to 60 lashes for her involvement in the LBC program “Bold Red Line” aired in mid-July, Suleiman Al-Jumaie, the lawyer representing Mazen Abdul Jawad, the prime offender in the case, told Arab News on Saturday.
“The journalist, R.A., the seventh accused in the case, accepted the verdict issued by Judge Muhammad Amin Mirdad of the Jeddah Summary Court. Her acceptance deprives her of the right to appeal,” Al-Jumaie said.
R.A. was accused of being an accomplice to Abdul Jawad who provoked a furor because he boasted on TV about having premarital sex and also provided explicit sexual descriptions and told how to pick up girls and women. His statements have been viewed as publicizing and promoting sinful behavior and violating Saudi social norms on the issues of dating and premarital sex.
According to media sources, the eighth on the list of the accused, A.R., a woman journalist working for Saudi Television, who was present in the court on Saturday, received a summons to appear in court on Monday.
Al-Jumaie commented: “It is unprecedented in the country that a journalist should be convicted by a court for doing something related to her job as a media person. The verdict also signals the marginalization or freezing of the Disputes Committee for Publications in the Ministry of Culture and Information. The verdict will gratify those people who have been striving to deactivate the committee and bring media persons to ordinary courts for prosecution. A man on a recent TV talk show demanded the dissolution of the committee. His demand has been realized by arraigning the journalist before the summary court although it is no doubt a clear violation of a past royal decree and the orders of the rulers, who have always encouraged dialogue and freedom of expression and coined favorable regulations for printing and publications, including the setting up of the committee to look into violations by the media.
“On the other hand, some people seek to bring the whole media and media persons to ordinary courts. In my view, the issue is not the crimes committed by Abdul Jawad but the prosecution of the entire media.”
His comment was made before his departure for Riyadh to attend a sitting of the Disputes Committee, which on Sunday morning will examine a case against the LBC channel. He believes that the committee will rule against the channel and spell out its punishment.
The lawyer said he was currently studying Abdul Jawad’s case so that he can challenge the verdict. Having Abdul Jawad as the prime convict, the upholding of the appeal would be beneficial to others implicated as well, he said.
