Saudi court: 40 lashings for woman, 75

March 10, 2009|Associated Press

CAIRO - An elderly widow in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 40 lashes and four months in jail for mingling with two young men who are not close relatives, drawing new criticism for the kingdom's ultraconservative religious police and judiciary.

The woman's lawyer said yesterday that he would appeal the verdict against Khamisa Sawadi, who is Syrian but was married to a Saudi. The attorney, Abdel Rahman al-Lahem, said the verdict issued March 3 also demands that Sawadi be deported after serving her sentence.

He said his 75-year-old client, who is not serving her sentence yet, was not speaking with the media, and he declined to provide more details about the case.

The newspaper Al-Watan said the woman met with the two 24-year-old men last April at her home in Chamil, a city north of the capital, Riyadh, after she asked them to bring her five loaves of bread.

Al-Watan identified one man as Fahd al-Anzi, the nephew of Sawadi's late husband, and the other as his friend and business partner Hadiyan bin Zein. It said they were arrested by the religious police after delivering the bread. The men also were sentenced to lashes and prison.

The court said it based its ruling on "citizen information" and testimony from Anzi's father, who accused Sawadi of corruption.

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