JEDDAH – The Jeddah District Court sentenced a Lebanese expatriate to one year imprisonment for tattooing women in Jeddah. An additional 200 lashes were added for providing make-up services to women and cutting and dyeing their hair. The prosecutor opposed the ruling as he sought a tougher penalty. The Arab hairdresser who was known among his clients as the “master of tattoos” was caught in a sting operation carried out by Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai'a) in the city's Al-Rawdah District while walking into a client's house. A Hai'a member found several different types and colors of hair dyes and another bag containing hair cutting tools in his possession. He protested his innocence by claiming that the tools and materials were for his hairdressing shop in Lebanon. When he was referred to the Investigation and Prosecution Bureau in Jeddah he continued his denials but investigators found SMS messages from women customers in Jeddah and images of women with tattoo drawings on their bodies and different business cards. The man had been working in the Kingdom for nine years on a business visa. He used to operate out of an apartment but when he suspected he was under surveillance he began visiting his clients in their homes. The Hai'a sought the help of an undercover policeman who impersonated a driver of a potential client and the man was arrested as he was entering the supposed home of the new client. Meanwhile, the Hai'a arrested a bootlegger outside a shopping mall in Khamis Mushayt on Monday. A citizen collaborated with the Hai'a to catch the man and his accomplices. The Saudi ordered two bottles of alcohol priced at SR900 from the bootlegger, believed to be an Ethiopian, and the Hai'a arrested him when the exchange was about to take place. – SG
