RIYADH – The Criminal Court in Riyadh sentenced a number of senior officials, including a brigadier general and a former ambassador, to varying jail terms after they were convicted of corruption charges, according to an official source at the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha). The Division of Financial and Administrative Corruption Cases at the Criminal Court issued the verdicts following the referral of the cases to the court by the Criminal Investigation and Prosecution Unit at Nazaha. Those sentenced also include a colonel, the head of a national committee affiliated with the Interior Ministry and two notaries. The source said Nazaha also initiated criminal cases against several people accused of corruption and legal procedures were underway against them. According to the Nazaha, a brigadier general working in the Medical Department at the Ministry of Defense was sentenced to four years in prison and a fine amounting to SR200,000 after being convicted of forgery. A colonel working as director of the Supply Department in the Ministry of Defense was convicted of forgery and he was sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of SR50,000. The secretary general of one of the National Committees affiliated with the Ministry of Interior was sentenced to nine years in prison and a fine of SR1,020,000 after being convicted of embezzlement, forgery, use of forged documents and money laundering. In this case, a businessman was also awarded seven years in prison and a fine of SR500,000 after he was convicted along the ministry official of the same charges. The court ordered them to return a total of SR3,000,000 in embezzled public money. It also slapped a three-year travel ban on the two men upon their release after serving the jail sentence. A former ambassador was awarded six years in prison and a fine of SR300,000 after he was found guilty of accepting bribe and abuse of office for illegally issuing Hajj and Umrah visas in return for sums of money. A notary was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of SR200,000 after being convicted of bribery. He was found guilty of receiving SR1,330,000 for completing the procedures for issuing deeds. In another case, the court awarded a jail term of seven years and a fine of SR700,000 to a notary for receiving SR15,500,000 as bribe in exchange for illegally issuing a deed to own a land. In this case, the briber was sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of SR500,000 for paying the bribe to obtain the deed while a citizen was sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of SR500,000 after convicted of bribery with acting as a mediator in the delivery of the bribe. The court also sentenced a member of the Public Prosecution to three years in prison and a fine of SR30,000 after being convicted of bribery and abuse of office. He asked a citizen to pay SR30,000 in bribe for dismissing a pending case against him. An employee of the Motor Vehicle Periodic Inspection Center in a governorate was sentenced to one and a half years in prison and a fine of SR20,000 after convicted of bribery for seeking SR500 from a citizen in exchange for giving his vehicle to pass certificate after it failed the inspection the first time. The Nazaha source stated that legal procedures are underway against several people accused of corruption. In one of the most notable cases, a notary was arrested for receiving SR4,461,500 through his brother, who is also arrested, for illegally completing the ownership process of two plots of land as a gift to a businessman and his sister without the knowledge of their father who owned the plots. The businessman was also arrested in the case. A retired brigadier general at the Border Guard, who used to work in the committee of border lands in a region, was arrested for receiving SR10,000,000 in instalments to accept requests for compensation of 15 citizens, who were also arrested, for large areas of land that were owned illegally with his full knowledge of the violation, the source said. An engineer, who was working as the head of a municipality, was arrested for receiving SR350,000 from a businessman in exchange for issuing fake approval certificates for his commercial entity. Those approval certificates amounted to SR435,000. The engineer also signed related completion certificates for the disbursement of financial dues. A citizen was arrested after being caught while receiving SR12,500 out of a promised SR32,000, in exchange for canceling 16 violations registered against a company at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development. Nine data entry operators at the Ministry of Health and six mediators, who are expatriates, were arrested for receiving money in exchange for modifying the health status of a number of citizens to immune without receiving the vaccine. An expatriate, who works as a university lecturer, was arrested for receiving SR2,000 from a student in exchange for his assistance in passing two exams. Two expatriates were arrested after being caught in the act of offering to bank employees SR3 for every SR1,000 deposited in cash, in exchange for not informing the authorities. A total amount of SR199,000 was found in their possession. After thorough investigations, it was found that the total deposited cash reached up to SR7,500,000. An employee working in a municipality, a citizen, and an expatriate, who acted as mediators, were arrested for receiving sums of money amounting to a total of SR132,350 from the owners of a number of stores, in exchange for ignoring their violations. An employee working in a recruitment department of a public hospital in a region was arrested for asking SR13,000, of which he received SR1,000 as first payment, from a female citizen in exchange for employing her and her sister in the hospital. Two expatriates were arrested for offering SR28,000 to an officer in exchange for removing the name of one of them from the suspended services list. Two employees working in a municipality in a region were arrested for receiving sums of money in for removing a violation of not wearing a mask against an expatriate, who works in a car repair shop. With the cooperation of the Ministry of Interior, an officer and an expatriate were arrested for forming a criminal gang through which they located workers who violated the residency law, arrested them, and received sums of money from them for their release. An employee working in the field committee of the border lands in one of the regions was arrested for stealing a plot of land and illegally issuing temporary deed for it.
