Canadian Facing Beheading Pleads with Harper
GLOBE AND MAIL: MONTREAL — A Canadian man facing beheading in Saudi Arabia wrote to Prime Minister Stephen Harper detailing that he was tortured into confessing to a murder he says he did not commit.

In the one-page letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Canadian Press, Mohamed Kohail implores Harper to use “every way possible to get me out of this situation.”

The letter, handed over to Canadian MP Deepak Obhrai when the latter visited him in a Jidda prison last December, discusses his deteriorating health and his two-year plight in jail.

“Mr. Harper, I have been in jail for two years now,” Mr. Kohail wrote. “I am imprisoned with hundreds (of) high-profile criminals in Saudi Arabia for a crime that I did not commit.”

Mr. Kohail, 24, and a Jordanian friend were convicted of murder after Munzer Al-Hiraki was killed in a January 2007 after-school brawl in Jidda which apparently started when Mr. Kohail's younger brother, Sultan, was accused of insulting a girl.

The brothers have repeatedly said they were acting in self-defence and were not involved in inflicting the fatal wounds during the fight, which involved dozens of teen boys

Mohamed Kohail was convicted of murder last year and ordered beheaded while Sultan, 18, was initially sentenced as an accessory to a year in jail and 200 lashes. The victim's family then appealed, resulting in a probable new trial for Sultan.

Both brothers and their friend have claimed their innocence and say the Saudi judicial system has not afforded them a fair trial.

“I want to come back to Canada to finish my degree — me and the rest of the family — and continue my life as a good citizen.” a desperate Mr. Kohail writes.

“I've lost my hair, two years of my life and see death coming to me closer every day,” he adds.

Mr. Kohail said he was only informed that Mr. Hiraki had died after he had signed the confession. That same confession was then used against him in the court proceedings.

“I was tortured to sign a confession,” Mr. Kohail said. >>> Sidhartha Banerjee | Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Jeddah Legalizing Informal Economy
Kabsa is a famous dish from Saudi Arabia. Often made from lamb, it is also quite frequently made from chicken. In Jeddah, women will be able to make homemade foods and sell them outside the home. Photo of this chicken kabsa (كبسه والدجاج المحشي) courtesy of Google Images
ARAB NEWS: JEDDAH: Saudi women who make and sell homemade products are now able to legitimize their work. The Jeddah municipality will issue a special license for any woman who wants to operate a business from her home, according to a municipal official.

“Women who sell homemade cooking and handicrafts or intend to do any other business from their homes can obtain the license to make her work legal and flourishing,” said Mahmoud Kinsarah, head of the municipality’s Licensing and Commercial Monitoring Department. He was speaking at a press conference held yesterday to announce the launch of the 20th Environmental Health Forum, which will be held in Abruq Al-Righama next Saturday. >>> Hasa Hatrash | Wednesday, March 4, 2009

ARAB NEWS: We’ll Work to Protect Arab Women and Children: Adela

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia will mobilize its efforts to protect the rights of women and children in the Kingdom as well as in the Arab world, said Princess Adela bint Abdullah, vice president of the National Family Safety Program (NFSP).

“This is an important issue to address as most countries in the Arab world are affected,” said Princess Adela yesterday. >>> Mohammed Rasooldeen | Wednesday, March 4, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)

Abdullah Meets with Blair in Jeddah
Photo of Tony Blair meeting King Abdullah in Jeddah courtesy of Arab News
ARAB NEWS: JEDDAH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah held talks here yesterday with Tony Blair, former British prime minister and special envoy of the Quartet to the Middle East.

"King Abdullah and Blair discussed the latest developments in the Palestinian issue and the stalled Middle East peace process," the Saudi Press Agency said.

King Abdullah arrived here on Saturday night from the Moroccan city of Casablanca and was received at the airport by Crown Prince Sultan, senior princes and high-ranking officials. [Source: Arab News] Monday 24, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
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Saudi University Professor Sentenced to 180 Lashes and Eight Months in Prison for Being in a State of Khulwa with an Unrelated Woman
Photo courtesy of Reuters and The Times
TIMESONLINE: A university professor allegedly caught in a Saudi-style honey trap has been sentenced to 180 lashes and eight months in jail – for having coffee with a girl.

The man, a prominent and well-respected Saudi teacher of psychology at Umm al-Qra University in the holy city of Mecca, was framed by the religious police after he angered some of their members at a training course, his lawyer said.

The academic has not been named by the local media, which have given his case wide coverage, but one senior Saudi journalist told The Times he was Dr Abu Ruzaiz, a married man in his late 50s with children.

“He is highly respected and above-board. Nobody believes the religious police’s version of what happened. The whole of Jeddah (the main city near Mecca) is in uproar about this. Everyone believes he is innocent and was set up,” the journalist said.

Contact between unrelated men and women is strictly prohibited in the austere desert Kingdom where religious police, commonly known as mutaween, patrol public places in teams to enforce the Kingdom’s brand of ultra-conservative Islam.

Usually bearded and often wielding canes, they ensure women are not harassed, sexes do not mix and shops close for prayers. They are under the command of the Kingdom’s Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

Abdullah Al-Sanousi, the academic’s lawyer, told local newspapers that his client had drawn the ire of some of the Commission’s staffers for speaking at length during a training session about how important it was for them to be polite to the public. Some of the trainees also wanted revenge because they had failed the course while others were not happy with their examination results.

Mr Ruzaiz is said to have received a call from a girl purporting to be one of his students who asked to meet to discuss a problem that she did not want to talk about over the phone. The professor agreed to meet at a family café provided she brought along her brother as a chaperone.

When he arrived, he was surprised to find the girl alone, and was promptly surrounded by religious policemen who handcuffed him and hauled him into custody. He was accused of being in a state of khulwa – seclusion – with an unrelated woman. Saudi professor faces lashes for having coffee with female 'student': Psychology academic says he was framed by religious police who had grudge against him >>> By Michael Theodoulou

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

When Drinking Coffee with a Friend at Starbucks Becomes a Crime!
ARAB NEWS: RIYADH, 5 February 2008 — A Saudi mother of three, who works as a business partner and financial consultant for a reputable company in Jeddah, didn’t expect that a trip to the capital to open the company’s new branch office would have her thrown behind bars by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

Yara, a petite 40-year-old woman, was in tears yesterday after she narrated to Arab News her encounter with a commission member that ended in high drama.

Yara, who has been married for 27 years, said she spent several hours in the women’s section of Riyadh’s Malaz Prison, was strip-searched, ordered to sign a confession that she was in a state of “khulwa” (a state of seclusion with an unrelated man) and for hours prevented from contacting her husband in Jeddah.

Her crime? Having a cup of coffee with a colleague in a Starbucks. Coffee With Colleague Lands Woman in Trouble >>> By Raid Qusti

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)