The Administrative Court of the Bureau of Grievances will hold Monday its first session to look into the case of six new senior officials accused by the Control and Investigation Board (CIB) of taking and giving bribe for transactions related to Jeddah floods. Sources told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that the six officials are the most prominent figures involved in the Jeddah flood case. One of them held the position of assistant mayor before being suspended from work. Another is director of an important department in Jeddah Mayoralty and was earlier director of a municipality, but was dismissed. The third is an engineer who has a consultation office, the fourth a merchant, the fifth a businessman, and the sixth a retired governmental official. They have been released on bail, the CIB said. The CIB has accused them of illegally paying SR60 million: SR5.5 million for a senior official of Jeddah Mayoralty; SR12 million for another one; SR19 million for the third one; and SR12.5 million for the fourth one. A governmental official facilitated 62 land grants, 21 of which were for a former undersecretary, 22 for a suspended assistant mayor, 19 for the director of an important department in Jeddah Mayoralty who has been suspended. The CIB presented the Bureau of Grievance with evidence and detailed information about accusations. The CIB said one of the senior officials of Jeddah Mayoralty took SR5.5 million as kickback from a businessman and the engineer who was the intermediary. Some officials were accused of abusing their power to get land grants. The Prosecutor General presented 25 documents as evidence incriminating the six accused persons. The documents included bank statements and confessions. The Prosecutor General said if anyone from the accused tries to deny these charges later under the pretext that they have been coerced will go nowhere with such pretexts. “They can't absolve themselves of criminal responsibility. All the confessions have been consistent with each other and confirm the fact that there was no coercion exercised and the confessions have been made with full conscience.” __
