JEDDAH — A court in Jeddah is considering the case of a minor who was deceived by a man in his mid-30s and had an illicit relationship with her after communicating with her via the dating app Badoo. The investigation and prosecution authority decoded the mysterious disappearance of a minor girl in Jeddah after her father dropped her at school in Al-Nuzlah district, Al-Watan newspaper reported. Investigations showed that the reason for her absence was that she had sex with a man who she had came into contact with through the Badoo network. A judicial source said to Al-Watan that the Jeddah criminal court received the case of a 14-year-old girl who had a relationship with a young man in his 30s. The public prosecutor requested the application of the Tazir for both the girl and the man. The incident came to light after the father of the young girl filed a complaint with the police station about the absence of his daughter after dropping her to school. The school's supervisor contacted the father informing him that his daughter did not attend school that day. A day later security patrols found the girl on the Corniche after a resident had contacted the police. The source added that the girl told the judge who is hearing the case that she was introduced to the young man via the social application Badoo a week ago. She then dated him and left school that day at 12 noon and rode with him in his car. It was the first time she went out with him. Nothing happened between her and the man at this meeting. He then returned her to a place near her home. However, the second time they met on the day she disappeared after leaving school, he took her to his house and assaulted her. After more than six hours he took her in his car to a deserted area on the Corniche and asked her to get out of the car. When she got out, he fled leaving her alone until she found help, the girl told the court. The source explained that the judge referred the girl to forensics and asked the man who allegedly assaulted her to be present during the second hearing. At the scheduled session the girl repeated what she mentioned at the first hearing, but the young man denied all charges. The judge then asked for the forensic report, which proved evidence of him assaulting the girl. Then the young man confessed to the charges, raising the issue for deliberation. The chairman of the prisoners' committee in Jeddah, Ashraf Al-Siraj, said, "In this case there is a public right and a private right. The private one is about the lawsuit filed by the girl's father for the absence of his daughter because of what the man did. The public right is related to the breach of law. Usually punishments in such cases are governed by the Tazir law, depending on what the judge sees fit, which could be up to 6 months in prison and lashing. As for the girl, she would be sent to a girls' shelter." He said "some judges may sentence only the man because he was the offender, but in most cases both get punished especially if the relationship took place with the girl's consent."
