Corpun file 7181 at www.corpun.com

Arab News, Jeddah/Riyadh/Dhahran, 1 May 2001

Youths flogged

By Badr Al-Motawae
Arab News Staff

JEDDAH, 1 May - Three young Saudi men received 15 lashes each in public for teasing girls in a market, as part of a drive by authorities to curb harassment of women, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported yesterday.

The men were caught by special police teams deployed at Riyadh's shopping centers, markets and girls' schools in a bid to stop increasing levels of harassment of women.

Corpun file 7180 at www.corpun.com

Arab News, 7 May 2001

4 youths held for harassment

RIYADH, 7 May - A tribunal comprising representatives of Riyadh governor's office, police and the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Investigations Commission and Public Prosecution has sentenced four youths to 15 lashes each and few days of detention for harassing girls. The four youths were arrested last Wednesday while harassing girl students in the Aqariya souk, the Olaya Road.

Corpun file 7179 at www.corpun.com

Arab News, 10 May 2001

Youths lashed for attacking teacher

MAKKAH, 10 May - Three youths who attacked a teacher of the Abu Ayyub Al-Ansari secondary school here were punished with 70 lashes publicly. The culprits drove into the front gate of school making loud noises and began abusing teachers and students in the school. When a teacher attempted to stop them they rammed his car and fled the scene. As a teacher could identify the mischievous youths, the police caught them and a summary court sentenced them to 70 lashes and two months jail, Okaz reported yesterday. Last week four youths, who were arrested at a Riyadh souk for harassing women, were given 15 lashes each and were jailed until their parents sought their release.

Corpun file 7178 at www.corpun.com

Arab News, 12 May 2001

Youth punished with ten lashes

By a Staff Writer

RIYADH, 12 May -- A young man has been given 10 lashes on charges of harassing women in markets in Al-Daraeya town near Riyadh on Wednesday. In another development, three students of a secondary school in Jeddah were dismissed for attacking a teacher. The teacher passed out following the attack. The students jumped on the teacher while he was relaxing in the staff 's rest room after school hours. Some of his colleagues later took him to a hospital where he received first-aid, Al-Riyadh reported. A special committee has been formed to look into complaints of harassment of women.

Corpun file 7136 at www.corpun.com

Arab News, Jeddah/Riyadh/Dhahran, 17 May 2001

Seven teens given 15 lashes each for harassing women

By Fayadh Al-Anazi & Hussein Al-Faleh
Arab News Staff

RIYADH, 17 May - Security officials here meted out punishment to seven secondary and university students caught harassing women in public places on Tuesday. The offenders were given 15 lashes each as "educational punishment".

Police arrested the students from shopping malls at Aqariah market and Prince Muhammed ibn Abdul Aziz Road. The punishment was carried out at the Suleimaniah police jail where they had been detained, a source at the Suleimaniah police station said.

The boys were nabbed for following women around, trying to talk to them, passing on phone numbers or just whistling at the opposite sex.

The police had handed out similar punishment to four other youths, who were arrested in similar circumstances, earlier this month.

In another development, police gave 35 lashes to a youth for harassing girls in Al-Rashid Mall in Alkhobar on Monday. Alkhobar's Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice had ordered the summary punishment of another youth on Saturday on similar charges.

The youth was caught harassing women by the police at the same commercial centre.

Regional authorities have set up special committees to handle the increasing tendency among youths to harass women in various parts of the Kingdom.

The committees comprise representatives from the respective governorate, police, Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and the Prosecution and Investigations Department.

The committee stipulates that the culprits should be set free soon after the punishment on bail after a written undertaking from them that they would not repeat the crime.

Meanwhile, a lady lecturer at a Taif college received minor injuries when an angry female student assaulted her.

The student was provoked by the lecturer's repeated demand to shut off her mobile phone while in the lecture hall.

In the light of increasing reports of student violence in schools Kingdomwide, several parents and teachers are demanding the reintroduction of caning in schools.