Saudi king waives lashing for female journalist

The Saudi king has waived the lashing a court ordered against a woman for working at a Lebanese television channel that aired a sexual confessions programme, an official said yesterday.

"He (King Abdullah) has asked the Ministry of Justice to drop the lashing" against journalist Rozana al-Yami, Information Ministry spokesman Abdul Rahman al-Hazaa said.

Mr Hazaa said that the King has ordered the "transfer of the cases to the Ministry of Information", referring to Ms Yami's case and that of another female journalist, reportedly named Iman Rajab, who was convicted of working for the same controversial programme which caused a stir in the conservative kingdom.

Ms Yami, 22, said on Saturday she was sentenced to 60 lashes by a court in the Red Sea city of Jeddah for having worked part-time in Saudi Arabia for the Saudi-owned Lebanese network LBC, adding that the judge mentioned that LBC had lacked the appropriate licence to operate in the kingdom.

She said the judge dropped all charges that she had been directly involved with the episode of the programme, which was aired in July.

Saudi judges base their rulings on strict Islamic Sharia law, but it was not immediately clear how the judge in this case reached the verdict.

The Information Ministry committee which will look into the two cases usually addresses media-related matters. It consists of representatives of the justice and information ministries as well as a number of journalists.

Ms Yami's sentencing came after Saudi airline sales clerk Mazen Abdul Jawad was convicted of offensive behaviour and sentenced to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes on October 7 for his appearance on the LBC show Bold Red Line, in which he talked about picking up girls and having sex with them.

Three friends who appeared on the show with him were given two-year prison terms and 300 lashes each, while a cameraman who helped film the episode was sentenced to two months in jail.

Mr Hazaa underlined that Mr Abdul Jawad's case will not be addressed by the ministry's committee.

Mr Abdul Jawad's lawyer Sulaiman al-Jimaie expressed disappointment at the decision not to refer his client's sentence to the Information Ministry committee.

"You cannot separate the cases. This is one TV programme," he said.

He also complained that the producers of the programme and the owners of the network were not punished.