The Court of Summary in Makkah on Sunday sentenced a man to a seven-month prison term, 429 lashes and a SR3,000 fine after being found guilty of libel, through text messages, against a member of the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution (BIP) in Makkah. The verdict read, “we sentenced the defendant to one month and 50 lashes for the public right and six months in prison and 300 lashes for the private right, in addition to 79 lashes for the slander against the BIP member”. The court also ordered the defendant be lashed in front of his neighborhood mosque after one of the day's prayers, with his face shown. Two years ago the BIP member had ensured that the man's two sons were jailed after they were found guilty of beating and raping a juvenile and filming the incident. The father at the time verbally abused the BIP member and was expelled from the investigator's office with a warning. The BIP member said that he had been receiving slanderous and libelous messages “from unidentified numbers, which I expected to be coming from someone sentenced in a criminal case”. He said he reported the matter to the police, who subsequently identified the culprit.
