JEDDAH — The Court of Appeals in Makkah has upheld a verdict issued by the summary court in Taif sentencing a Saudi man to six years in prison and 150 lashes for blackmailing a young woman. According to Al-Watan daily on Wednesday, the man picked up the young woman, drove her to an apartment in Taif, beat her up and sexually assaulted her. The man had seized the victim's mobile phone and took her pictures. A year later, he started threatening the woman saying unless she succumbs to his desires again, he would publish the photos. "This is the longest jail term issued so far by a Saudi court to a blackmailer," said a court source who was not identified. He said the young woman asked the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) to free her from the blackmailing of the man who had sexually abused her and was threatening to publish her photos if she did not give herself in to him again. The source said when the woman refused to respond to his demands, he sent her photos to her fiance, causing serious differences between the two. The source said the Haia members set up a sting to catch the blackmailer but he escaped. "The Haia members then informed the young man's father of what his son has been doing to the woman and asked him to bring him to their office with the mobile phone he had seized from her," he said. The source said when the suspect brought the woman's mobile phone, they discovered that he had erased all photos and removed the chip. The source said the young man denied all the charges and claimed that it was the woman who was exploiting him. He said he had never beat or abused her but admitted to taking her mobile phone to stop her from chasing him. The source said the judge who heard the case was convinced that the man was guilty of blackmailing the woman and sentenced him.
