JEDDAH: The Saudi convicted in May of impersonating a uniformed military officer in a Bluetooth recording and performing “acts improper and against Islamic teachings” has told investigators that a new video in which he appears was recorded by a guard at Brayman Prison, Al-Watan Arabic daily reported Thursday. A new inquiry was launched earlier this week after the appearance of the recording, with officials investigating its veracity and how the man, who is currently serving a total sentence of six years in prison and 1,500 lashes of the whip along with a 55,000-riyal fine, managed to obtain a camera inside the prison ward. The person who filmed the first video that led to the original prison sentence and who has recently completed his prison term also allegedly appears in the new recording which circulated this week on Internet sites and via mobile telephones. Al-Watan, citing prison sources, said the Saudi inmate had confirmed that it was him in the recording, and claimed that one of the prison guards carried out the filming. The sources said that the questioning of inmates and prison officers revealed that the recording was made on a mobile telephone camera smuggled into the ward by “visitors or prison guards”, but ruled out the prison guard's involvement in the filming. Mobile telephones are forbidden in the prison wards, but the sources said that searches last week revealed that some guards and visitors had been involved in smuggling them in. Three such cases are currently being investigated. The sources identified one possible suspect who was recently released as being responsible for making the video, suggesting he uploaded it on to the Internet once out of prison.
