Jeddah Administrative Court in its session Sunday looked into the Jeddah flood case charges against former deputy mayor, a director of services department at Jeddah Mayoralty and a retired government official. The ex-deputy mayor is accused of forging documents and reports written by committee members who inspected flood locations at Kerah Valley and Thouwal land east of Jeddah 19 years ago. He is accused of adding some paragraphs to the original reports without the committee's knowledge. The former mayor told the court that his deputy misled him and had him sign the recommendations. “If I had noticed the paragraphs my deputy added to the reports, I would not have signed these reports.” The former deputy denied what the mayor said and asked the court to let him meet the mayor face to face. He said that the Prosecutor General did not produce the remaining enclosures of the letter. The lawyer of the former deputy, Dr. Wael Bafakih, said the Prosecutor General pressed forgery charges against his client despite only having photocopies for evidence. The second accused person, a retired engineer, who was also an undersecretary at construction department of Jeddah Mayoralty, stood trial for taking bribes and issuing a construction license for a person to build houses at Umm Al-Khair Planned District. This was in direct contravention of Royal orders banning the construction of houses in valleys or the passages of flood channels. The accused said that he issued a license to construct buildings based on the study submitted to him which confirmed that the district had all necessary protection against floods. The third accused, who worked in a government agency which is in charge of granting lands, said he had nothing to do with the two accused and did not provide any services to either of them. The court adjourned the case to next Monday for deliberations. __
