Saudi gets 5 years in jail for frank sex talk

October 08, 2009|Associated Press

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - A Saudi court yesterday convicted a man for publicly talking about sex after he bragged on a TV talk show about his exploits, sentencing him to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes, his lawyer said.

Talking about sex publicly is a taboo in ultraconservative Saudi Arabia.

Lawyer Sulaiman al-Jumeii said he plans to appeal the court’s ruling and is confident the sentence against his client, which includes a ban on travel and talking to the media for five years after his release, will be revoked.

The lawyer said there is no specific law in the Saudi penal code “that defines punishment for talking or bragging.’’ He said he assumes the judge based his decision on Islamic law, which forms the general basis of the justice system and stipulates that people should not talk about engaging in immoral behavior.

Jumeii maintains that his client, Mazen Abdul-Jawad, was duped by the Lebanese LBC satellite channel that aired the talk show and was unaware in many cases he was being recorded.

The program, which aired July 15 on LBC and was seen in Saudi Arabia, scandalized this conservative country, where such frank talk is rarely heard in public.