Corpun file 25159 at www.corpun.com
Mail Online, London, 2 January 2014
Saudi Twitter user is jailed for three months and sentenced to 80 lashes for falsely accusing a Kuwaiti pop star of adultery
• The Saudi national was apparently a fan of a rival pop star
• He accused the Kuwaiti singer Shams of adultery without
proof
• Islamic law stipulates flogging for those who accuse others
of having affairs without proof
• The man also posted fabricated photos of the singer
By Tara Brady
A Saudi court has sentenced a man convicted of defaming a Kuwaiti singer by accusing her on Twitter of adultery to three months in jail and 80 lashes.
The Saudi national, apparently a fan of a rival pop star, was sentenced for accusing Kuwaiti singer Shams of adultery without providing proof, the Saudi Sabq news website cited the verdict as saying.
The ruling is based on Islamic sharia law which stipulates flogging for those who accuse others of having extra-marital sex without giving proof.
The man was also jailed for three months and fined 10,000 riyals ($2,700), the news website said.
Shams had filed a libel case against the man who owned a Twitter account titled in Arabic 'the lawyer of Queen Ahlam,' another Gulf pop star.
As well as accusing Shams of adultery, he posted fabricated photos depicting her in 'obscene' situations, Sabq said, without elaborating.
The microblogging website is hugely popular in Saudi Arabia, which is also one of the 10-most censored countries for media, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
Some 41 per cent of internet users in the oil-rich kingdom use Twitter, a study published by the US-based Business Insider website found.
© Associated Newspapers Ltd
Corpun file 25160 at www.corpun.com
Emirates 24/7, Dubai, UAE, 7 January 2014
Jail, lashes for 7 Saudi men caught at mixed party with alcohol
Police raided rest house in western town of Taif
A Saudi court sentenced seven men to long jail terms and ordered them lashed 99 times each in front of a girls' college after they were caught at a mixed party with alcohol in the conservative Gulf Kingdom, a newspaper said on Tuesday.
Police raided a rest house in the western Saudi town of Taif and arrested seven men and 15 university girls for staging a mixed party and having alcohol.
The court on Tuesday sentenced the two "organisers" of the party to 20 months in prison and ordered them lashed 99 times each in front of the Taif girls' college.
The court also sentenced the other five young men to eight months in jail and ordered them lashed 99 times each at the same place.
Sabq did not say whether the female college students were punished but Saudi authorities have handed girls to their families in previous similar cases.
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