A total of 20 persons are expected to stand trial within weeks over bribery charges related to the Jeddah floods, it was reported in a section of the Arabic press on Saturday. An estimated SR90 million in bribes changed hands between government officials, businessmen and engineers of Arab and European nationalities. Over the past few months, many of the accused persons stood trial on charges of bribery, money laundering, abuse of power, fraud and forgery of official documents. Some of the accused retracted their confessions and claimed they were coerced into making these statements. Meanwhile, the Riyadh Administrative Appeal Court has finally endorsed a decision to confiscate two pieces of land given as a bribe to a notary public in Jeddah for forging official documents. He was also given SR200,000 as a bribe. This decision was issued after the resolution of a case involving the illegal issue of title deeds for land located on the area where King Abdullah University for Science and Technology in Thuwal was built. More than 14 persons including government officials, businessmen and a lawyer, were involved in this case, all of whom were fined a total of over SR1 million and sentenced to 25 years in prison. The investigation conducted by the Bureau of Investigations and Prosecution in Makkah Region revealed that the assistant chief of the notary public in Jeddah was an accomplice in a bribery case involving the illegal issue of title deeds. The assistant chief paid bribe to two government officials to issue the title deeds.
