Trial of 4 accused in Jeddah flood disaster to begin next week Okaz/Saudi Gazette JEDDAH – Trial in the Jeddah District Court is scheduled to begin on Sept. 13 (Shawwal 14) of four people accused of illegal activities related to the Jeddah flood disaster. The court will obtain responses from a number of accused people including a former deputy mayor, the director of a vital administration, who is still on the job, and an engineer who is a specialist in floodwater drainage and project management. Sources have told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that the former deputy mayor is facing three charges in the District Court and five charges before the Board of Grievances. He has admitted that money including a SR50,000 check was deposited in his accounts and said a former Jeddah mayor, who is also accused of wrongdoing, gave him the money as gift. The man also alleged that the former mayor also gave him several plots of land in a number of locations because of his special relationships with former ministers and officials. The former deputy mayor has acknowledged that he is living in a SR5 million villa, which he purchased on installments, and owns property and land in prime locations on the Jeddah Corniche and in Madina and Riyadh. He also said that a former official in the Ministry of Communications took the help of an Indian engineer to determine the flood routes in eastern Jeddah, without giving any details. The Prosecutor General has submitted a CD containing scenes of districts affected by the floods and reports on field-inspection tours. Meanwhile, a prominent official in Jeddah Mayoralty presented a letter to the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution, which in turn referred it to the District Court. The letter from 2001 (1422H) includes the statement of former deputy mayor saying that he bears no responsibility for engineering and technical errors in Umm Al
