JEDDAH — A man who attacked a woman at a public place was charged with physical and verbal assault even though the victim had retaliated on the spot, Al-Watan daily reported. A source from the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution said a video of a man slapping a woman in one of the markets in Balad District went viral four months ago and caught the attention of the authorities. “Police arrested the man and found him guilty of assault. The suspect confessed to hitting the woman and shouting profanities at her,” said the source. He added that further investigations revealed the man had a criminal record of obtaining alcohol, unlicensed weapons and obtaining and selling drugs. “The police looked into the man's cell phone and found records of calls between him and his victim. When asked about it, he said he had paid the woman SR100 so she can guarantee him a job but she never did,” said the source. The source said the man would be tried at the criminal court in two weeks. The woman said the assailant was a vendor at Al-Balad Market and had approached her to ask for a job in the company she worked in. “I work for a cosmetics store at Al-Balad Market. The assailant wanted to work for the company but he was not ready to show up for work regularly. I told him the only way he can get a job is to prove his readiness to work,” said the woman. She added she later heard of another company that hired Saudi ghost workers to meet Saudization requirements. “I told him about this company, he accepted the offer and gave me SR100 for my favor. He would sell his products in front of the store where I worked and we would always fight over the space. One day, he got so mad that he threw a teacup at me,” said the woman. She admitted that she retaliated by pushing his table over and damaging his products. “He got so angry, he started cussing me and hitting me on the head. He apologized after he hit and we went our separate ways for the day. But someone has captured the incident and the video went viral on social media websites, which caught the attention of the authorities,” said the woman.
