A senior Jeddah Mayoralty official Sunday retracted a confession of taking bribe from a businessman to expedite the process of paying his financial dues owed by the mayoralty. Appearing in the Board of Grievances here the businessman, whose company had undertaken a flood project for the mayoralty, also denied paying SR60,000 in kickbacks to the official. The mayoralty official maintained that his earlier confession of taking bribe was taken under duress. The official also claimed that when he confessed to taking bribe when he was under an emotional trauma following the death of his daughter. The lawyer for the businessman presented the court a three-page document with attached letters from the mayoralty showing dates of correspondence between the businessman and the mayoralty. The case was adjourned so that the Prosecutor General could respond to it. The presiding judge looked also into the case of seven individuals accused of paying bribery to the same mayoralty official. All the accused including a foreign investor denied that they had paid any kickbacks. They told the judge that they had filed a lawsuit against the mayoralty because their financial dues were not paid as agreed. Because of the delay in getting payment, their companies sustained huge losses. The judge decided to adjourn the case to look into the documents submitted by the accused in response to the charges leveled against them. __
