The Court of Cassation in Riyadh announced that it endorsed a Shariah decision issued by the General Court in Riyadh for imprisonment of four people for a total of 34 years and 2,700 lashes of the whip after they were convicted assaulting expatriates and robbing them. The Riyadh Police Department had received reports from a number of foreign taxi drivers that four people would get in their taxis and provide a destination, but before they got there, the men threatened them and robbed them of their money and mobile telephones, authorities said. An investigation, which found that the crimes were being committed on an ongoing basis, resulted in the men being arrested. They admitted to their crimes and described their roles in carrying them out, authorities added. Shariah verdicts were issued and referred to the General Court in Riyadh. Three men were each sentenced to ten years in jail and 800 lashes of the whip while the fourth was sentenced to four years behind bars and 300 lashes. In another development, security officials in Riyadh's Al-Izdihar District arrested two people who impersonated security men, stopped foreign workers and robbed them, a security source said Friday. Security patrols, who were suspicious about two men they observed stopping and frisking expatriate workers, spoke to the men and learned that they were imposters. One man's identity showed that he was a student in a police academy in a Gulf country. The two were arrested and handed over to the Al-Olayya Police Station in Riyadh for further investigation, officials said. In a third incident, police quickly arrested a man after an expatriate man appealed for help from a security patrol during its rounds in Al-Hamra District. The victim said a motorist blocked his way, beat him up and robbed him of his money, mobile phone and Iqama and sped away. The information was immediately circulated to security teams in the area who started searching for the assailant. Security men found the man in his car on Khaled Bin Al-Waleed Street. The driver was apprehended and handed over to police, who are investigating the incident, authorities said.
