District Court judge Sheikh Abid Al-Azouri has turned down a request from Mazen Abdul Jawad's mother for her son to be released on bail until the first hearing scheduled for after the Eid holidays. Abdul Jawad's mother, hoping to have her son home during the final ten days of Ramadan, reportedly made an official request which was rejected by the judge as “the first hearing has been set for right after the Eid holidays due to the judge being busy with other cases.” Abdul Jawad's family has also reportedly sent telegrams to “high authorities” seeking his release for the last ten days of the month, on the grounds that the exposure he has received during the last month “has been the greatest punishment.” Abdul Jawad's lawyer, Soleiman Al-Jumei'i, is waiting to receive a copy of the prosecution's case from the court, and sources say they expect him to hand it over to the media violations committee at the Ministry of Culture and Information. Meanwhile, speaking to Al-Watan newspaper Sunday, Abdul Jawad's mother said she hadn't seen the program for which her son and seven others have been held for investigation, and that she knew nothing of his detention until a week after his arrest. “It was a huge shock, and I collapsed, and had to spend a week in hospital,” she said. “My whole life and that of my family has been turned into a living hell since we found out he was in prison. I hope the channel gets its come-uppance for what they did to my son.” Abdul Jawad's mother made repeated reference to LBC being “unlicensed” during the interview, after the two LBC offices in the Kingdom were closed down in the wake of the “Bold Red Line” program's emission. Only one of the offices reportedly had a license to operate in Saudi Arabia. “My son was a victim, and I heard that other victims had spoken to the press about things the same channel had done to them,” she said. “We are all Muslims, and Muslims are brothers to one another. I ask of everyone, as they have families as well, to treat my son as they would have their own sons treated, and I ask for their help, especially since we know the channel had no license and no approval from the ministry.” Describing her son as “loving and compassionate” member of the family, Abdul Jawad's mother said she had noticed a change in his behavior in the two weeks prior to his arrest on the last day of July. “He appeared distressed, and cried a lot,” she said. “Every two or three days he went to Makkah for Umrah, and would stay in the mosque for a long time. One day he even asked me to go with him, and we were thinking of going on the first day of Ramadan. Whenever I asked him what was troubling him he wouldn't say anything.” The public, she said, had been harsh on her son. “They have been harsh on him and on all of us in the extreme, but since finding out the channel had no license and that its offices had been closed a lot of relatives and acquaintances have started to sympathize with us, and some have apologized for passing judgment before knowing the details.” Abdul Jawad's lawyer had been reported as seeking to have the case referred to the Ministry of Culture and Information, regarding the issue as a media dispute. His client has repeatedly claimed he was set up by the program makers who used voice dubbing and biased editing to portray him in as scandalous a light as possible. “The director came to my apartment and looked around and asked me to talk,” Abdul Jawad told Okaz in July. “He pulled out some sex toys and asked me to hold them up to the camera as if I had them in my flat.” “I don't blame the people who have made the complaints,” Abdul Jawad said, referring to a reported 200 individuals who made official objections to the content of the program. “They are only going by what they saw and don't know how the channel went about it or about the large parts they left out.” It appears, however, that Abdul Jawad and the seven others detained with him will be tried for involvement in a case of public morality. “My hopes are in Allah and then in our guardians who are the most merciful toward their sons and their people,” Abdul Jawad's mother told Al-Watan. “They know the channel was operating without a license, and my sons have said that the lawyer told them the accusations were false, and Shariah judgments are not made on false evidence. I have great hope that they will relieve us of this hell we are going through and that they forgive my son, as forgiveness is a great character virtue.”
