The Qatif Court on Tuesday sentenced an employee of Qatif General Hospital to two years in prison and 180 lashes of the whip for blackmailing a woman in her '20s. The man asked the woman for sexual favors in exchange for a medical report she needed. The sentence also included transferring the employee to a department where he does not deal with women. The man confessed to the crime. Judge Mitref Al-Bishr said the sentence was extenuated because of the defendant's age – he is in his '40s – and because he suffers from a chronic disease. The man managed to get the woman's photos after becoming friendly with her on the phone. After reporting the matter to the police and the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the woman pretended to go along with his advances and agreed to meet him at a mall. This is where the authorities arrested him. He admitted during questioning that he had planned to take the girl to a farm where his friends were waiting.
