The Prosecutor General has rejected a verdict of one year in prison and 250 lashes for a Yemeni national who was accused of stealing a laptop and blackmailing its owner for SR100,000 in return for not publishing his family's pictures on the Internet. The Prosecutor General considered the verdict inadequate and demanded stiffer penalties. Hence, the case was referred to the Court of Cassation. The Commission for Investigation and Prosecution had referred the expatriate to the District Court in Jeddah to put him on trial according to the Shariah on charges of stealing a laptop from a Saudi national, accessing his personal folders, e-mail and addresses and then threatening to publish pictures of his wife and daughters saved in the laptop if he did not pay a ransom of SR100,000.
