Abdulrahman Al-Ali Saudi Gazette Staff JEDDAH — The Jeddah Administrative Court Monday acquitted four civil servants accused of forging an official document due to flaws in the prosecution's case. According to the prosecution report, the four defendants were part of an anti-beggary committee that included a member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (the Hai'a) that arrested two African women beggars at a traffic light. When the committee members handed the women over to the anti-beggary official accompanying them, he refused to receive the women, the prosecution claimed. He claimed that he did not see them begging and accused the officers of forging the official document alleging that the women were begging, the prosecution told the court. At the trial the prosecution presented two reports signed by the members of the committee. In his charges sheet he accused the four employees of forging official documents based on the only testimony of the anti-beggary official. The four defendants denied the charges and said they always suffered from lack of cooperation from anti-beggary officials. One of the defendants said in his testimony that the official left the committee members to buy nuts when they arrested the women. After this, he refused to sign the committee's report and accused them of forging it, the court heard. After hearing the testimonies of the four defendants, the judge cleared them. The prosecution accepted the verdict.
