Female Journalist Sentenced To 60 Lashes For Sex Show On Saudi Arabia TV

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A Saudi court on Saturday sentenced a female journalist to 60 lashes after she had been charged with involvement in a TV show in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex.

Rozanna al-Yami, 22, is believed to be the first Saudi woman journalist to be given such a punishment, but there were conflicting accounts about how the court issued its verdict.

Al-Yami, who worked as a coordinator for the program but has denied working on the sex-show episode, told The Associated Press it was her understanding that the judge at the court in the western city of Jiddah dropped the charges against her. They included involvement in the preparation of the show and advertising the segment on the Internet.

But she said he still handed down the lashing sentence "as a deterrence."

"I am too frustrated and upset to appeal the sentence," said al-Yami.

Al-Yami refused to provide contact details for her lawyer to ask about the legal proceedings, including the basis in Islamic law for the punishment and whether the charges were really dropped.

Sulaiman al-Jumeii, the lawyer for the man who appeared in the TV show, said such "physical punishment is not an indication of innocence or a drop of charges."

"If the judge had dropped the charges, then why did he give her the 60 lashes?" he added.

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Abdul-Rahman al-Hazza, the spokesman of the Ministry of Culture and Information, told the AP he had no details of the sentencing and could not comment on it.

In the program, which aired in July on the Lebanese LBC satellite channel, the man, Mazen Abdul-Jawad appears to describe an active sex life and shows sex toys that were blurred by the station. The same court sentenced Abdul-Jawad earlier this month to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes.

Al-Jumeii maintains his client was duped by the TV station and was unaware in many cases he was being recorded.

On Saturday, he told the AP that not trying al-Yami before a court specialized in media matters at the Ministry of Culture and Information was a violation of Saudi law.

"It is a precedent to try a journalist before a summary court for an issue that concerns the nature of his job," he said.

The case has scandalized this ultraconservative country where such public talk about sex is taboo and the sexes are strictly segregated.

The government moved swiftly in the wake of the case, shutting down LBC's two offices in the kingdom and arresting Abdul-Jawad, who works for the national airline.

Three other men who appeared on the show, "Bold Red Line," were also convicted of discussing sex publicly and sentenced to two years imprisonment and 300 lashes each.

Comments

[lemealone]

CIA should sneak over there and take these judges out one at a time. That would be foreign aid well spent. That would make us a kinder gentler...

[hungariangirl]

A N I M A L S !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bioluminescence]

Countries which sanction apparent human rights abuses and which do not move toward free and open elections of their highest offices usually hear the displeasure of the U. S. State Department. Unless they are an official friend as is the case of Saudi Arabia.

[KimHW]

got oil?
your our friend, and we re blind if you do

[apolloguide]

Wouldn't it be neat if Obama would speak out about this unspeakable cruelty ?

[apolloguide]

These Saudis are supported by the Americans military... they are not humanely inclined..remember the "Prince" who brutally beat a man with others holding the man earlier in the year and then ran over him with his van. He was so proud of what he did he made a video tape and placed it on the internet. Thes people are lawless brutes...60 lashes could easily kill this woman...

[DD1Prime]

60 lashes is enough to cause permanent disability or death - especially the way the sadists in the Saudi Arabia administer "corporeal punishment."

This kind of sentence is indeed intended to send a signal than even TALKING about human sexuality will not be tolerated by Wahabbists - an immature cult posing as the guardians of a 1400 year old religion well versed with royal harems (even today), polygamy, and large families (which don't come into being with immaculate conception).

Enforced hypocrisy and silence about basic human nature can only be imposed for so long - no one can fight Nature and win...

[One more Thing]

FOX should send Greta to investigate.

[StephenJK]

Maybe Greta will be a hero and offer her own back for the lashing.

[mediamarv]

"...this ultraconservative country..."

Yeah, them conservatives really have a lot to offer the world. See, mental disorders among right wingers aren't restricted to the USA at all.

[machivellianX]

haha, that's not even conservatism, that's called insanity. mysogyny and an assortment of other things I'm sure. Talk about living in the past, say a few thousand years in the past

[JohnUllmann]

It's pathetic that such barbarous authoritarian glue binds the sheeple to their leaders. I really don't know how they stand for such hypocrisy when the wealthiest women dress in decollete down to their decollete and they serve wine & cigars in their own homes. Such Idiocy is reprehensible.

[duxguts]

These people and the Israelis are our allies. We sure can pick them.

[MosheDayanHero]

IOf course you prefer it was neofascists Iran, Syria and Hezbollah..... lovely...

[MosheDayanHero]

Par of this news item ignored by most-- the Saudi guy who actually went to TV boasting about his conquests ( the source of the whole kerfuffle)
received the verdict of ONE THOUSAND LASHES!!!

[JohnWilliam]

Religion is a source of pain, bigotry, and close-mindedness? How odd!

[MosheDayanHero]

Bingo

[Ameriki]

The problem is not Islam per se. It is Shariah law which is uncodified and basically is whatever judge says it is at the time he says it. Personal opinion instead of written law.

[MajorKong]

They've also carried over a lot of tribal practices that were never really part of the religion.

[Paula Ann]

excellent observation - some of the things going on in somalia, afghanistan, and saudi are beyond the pale.

[TheLonelyGod]

Yeah, separation of church and state would hopefully clear this problem right up.

[Caliwoman]

If anything makes me ready to buy a plug in hybrid and put solar panels on my garage, it is the barbaric oppression of the Saudi state, from which we import so much oil. Keep acting like pigs and more and more Americans will realize we need energy independence. Then they can face their desert sands and will need to develop their society to survive. Oil dollars prop up an archaic government and archaic interpretation of religion. So many Saudi citizens hate this, but we keep giving their government money for oil and sending them arms. Bad on us.

[machivellianX]

yeah, we do by proxy prop it all up and in essence maintain this nonsense. Without the funding the government would probably not be as harsh as it is now....it certainly wouldn't be like the way it is now

[mamacat]

Do I think this sort of thing is barbaric? Yes.
Do some of the people over in Saudi Arabia think that we are barbaric? Probably.
Of course I hope that women in that part of the world will get what I think are basic human rights, but it is probably counterproductive to be at war with them because of cultural differences.For instance, Canada allows Gays and Lesbians to marry, and the USA does not. Perhaps Canadians think that we are barbaric, but they have learned to live at peace with us.
Another example: in the Parade section of Sunday's Los Angeles Times I read in an article that Bahrain's ambassador to the United States is both a woman and a Jew. Change is happening. In fact, it is impossible for us to prevent change, although we may not always be in control of it.

[obelix1349]

There are orders of difference between not having gay marriage and this kind of barbarism. (I do support gay marriage for what its worth). By the way, I think gay marriage is probably the least of concern for gays living in Saudi Arabia.