Corpun file 12194

Arab News, Riyadh/Jeddah/Dhahran, 4 October 2003

Saudi Youth Faces Death for Rape and Murder

Staff Writer

JEDDAH, 4 October 2003 - A 20-year-old Saudi faces death for raping and killing a boy with the help of his 16-year-old cousin, Okaz reported yesterday.

"The young man raped the boy twice before strangling him, hitting his head with a rock and pushing him off a cliff," the paper said.

A Shariah court in Jeddah sentenced the man to death and gave his cousin five years in jail and 400 lashes of the cane, the paper said. It identified the man as Ali, his cousin as Sultan and the child as Ibrahim.

Sultan told the Arabic daily that Ali asked Sultan to lure 12-year-old Ibrahim to Sultan's house so they could sodomize him while his family was away. "I asked Ibrahim to come and have lunch and play video games with me," he said.

Ali, who had been drinking, joined the two and began beating the boy. Both Ali and Sultan then sexually assaulted the boy.

"When I had a feeling that my family were about to come back, I asked Ali and Ibrahim to leave. I quickly tidied up the room so my family wouldn't suspect anything," Sultan said.

He said Ali then took Ibrahim away. "In the evening I went out looking for them. I found Ali on a nearby hill and the body of Ibrahim lay dead in the valley in his bloodstained clothes." Ali and Sultan then fled the village.

During his trial, Ali acknowledged his guilt but said he acted "under the influence of liquor."

Corpun file 12326

Arab News, Riyadh/Jeddah/Dhahran, 27 October 2003

Girl's Kidnappers Get 4 Months in Jail

Staff Writer

JEDDAH, 27 October 2003 - A judge in Qunfuda has sentenced three men to four months in jail and 300 lashes for kidnapping three girls, Al-Madinah newspaper reported. The kidnappers kept the girls for a month between Jeddah and Qunfuda, the paper said. It said one of the men invited a high school student for a ride in his car with her sister and cousin. Once they were in the car, he decided to kidnap them. One of the girls escaped but did not alert her family. The families later reported the disappearance of the two girls to police, who launched an intensive search for them. In the meantime, the two girls were taken to Jeddah, where they stayed with the kidnapper's brother until they were caught on Jeddah's Corniche in the company of a foreigner, Al-Madinah said. The girls were sent to a correctional facility for teenagers.