Female Journalist in Saudi Arabia Sentenced to 60 Lashes

A 22-year-old female journalist from Saudi Arabia, who worked for a Lebanese TV channel which broadcast a show on which a Saudi man talked about his sex life, has been sentenced to 60 lashes by a court in Jeddah.

In July Saudi man Mazen Abdul-Jawad appeared on a show made by the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) called "In Bold Red"/"Bold Red Line". According to Reuters LBC is popular amongst the population of Saudi Arabia, who enjoy the entertainment programs and talk shows, made in a Western-style, that it broadcasts. But when Mazen Abdul-Jawad, a divorcee with four children, confessed on air to having had premarital sex, the Associated Press says that he also showed the viewers sex toys that were blurred by LBC, the religiously conservative authorities in Saudi Arabia took action. In August Mr Abdul-Jawad was arrested and earlier this month he was sentenced to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes. And now the same court in Jeddah, a city in Western Saudi Arabia that is less than 50 miles from Mecca, Islam's holiest city, has handed down a sentence of 60 lashes to Rozanna al-Yami, despite the 22-year-old female journalist denying that she had any involvement with the show on which Mr Abdul-Jawad made his startling confessions. It is not entirely clear why Ms al-Yami is being punished by the court as the Associated Press is reporting that she believed the charges brought against her for her alleged involvement in the production of the controversial show had been dropped. However Reuters is stating that Ms al-Yami has been found guilty of working for an organization which was not authorized to operate in Saudi Arabia, a country in which the ultraconservative Wahhabi school of Islam holds sway. The lack of clarity regarding her "crime" has left the young Saudi woman so frustrated and distressed that she is not planning to appeal the sentence handed down to her. Sulaiman al-Jumaie, the defense lawyer for Mazen Abdul-Jawad, who maintains that he was unaware he was being filmed when he made the confessions relating to his sex life, is perplexed by Ms al-Yami's sentence, which may simply have been passed as some kind of deterrent. Mr al-Jumaie doubts that the charges brought against Ms al-Yami could have been dropped as a sentence of 60 lashes would normally indicate that a person has been found guilty of a crime. He did add that the case brought against the journalist was unprecedented, Reuters quoting him as saying:

This is the first case in which a journalist was tried at a court of summary jurisdiction for an offence relating to the nature of his or her profession

The Ministry of Culture and Information in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, would not comment on the case brought against Rozanna al-Yami. After "In Bold Red"/"Bold Red Line" was broadcast Saudi authorities closed down the offices of LBC, an organization which is part owned by a member of the Saudi royal family. Three other men who appeared on the LBC show with Mazen Abdul-Jawad were each sentenced to two years in jail and 300 lashes.