Editor, Columnist Fined SR30,000  

THE Ministry of Information settled a complaint against Al-Watan’s outgoing editor-in-chief, Tareq Ibrahim, and one of the Abha-based newspaper’s columnists, Hamza Al-Mezaini with a SR30,000 fine, Al-Hayat reported Tuesday.

Ibrahim will be fined SR20,000 and Mezaini will pay the remainder after they were found guilty of libel against Abdullah Saleh Al-Barak.

On November 30, Mezaini wrote a column attacking against ideas presented by Barak, in which he described the latter’s ideas as warped.

At the time, Barak filed a defamation suit against Mezaini before a Shariah court. The Shariah judge convicted Mezaini of defamation, and sentenced him to four months in prison and 200 lashes. Mezaini appealed the case on the basis of jurisdiction.

…In late March, King Abdullah then Crown Prince issued a directive ordering that Mezaini’s case be considered only on original jurisdiction, annulling the earlier sentence of four months in prison and 200 lashes.

In Al-Hayat’s report Tuesday, the newspaper quoted an unnamed source at the ministry saying that both the former editor-in-chief and columnist had been found guilty of libel after consideration of all case documentation.

The committee’s findings, according to Muhammad Ali Alwan, acting Assistant Undersecretary for Internal Media at the ministry, are not final and can be revoked by the Board of Grievances.

Divisions amongst the ministry committee members, meanwhile, surfaced as the representative of the Ministry of Justice’s representative said Mezaini’s sentence was too light. The representative suggested that Mezaini be punished with a blanket ban against him from having any of his work published in any Saudi publication.

According to this article from The Saudi Gazette, the judicial reforms started by the current King, are starting to take effect. Tried in a religious court, the defendant lost his case and was sentenced to prison and lashes. The case was overturned, though, as the Sharia court was deemed not to have jurisdiction; under new rules, the case should have been considered by the Ministry of Information, and it was.

The defendant (and his editor) lost again and were found guilty of libel. They were fined about $8,000, but given no prison time or flogging. Without knowing the details of the case, it’s impossible to say whether or not this was justified, but the larger point is that there is now an active–and successful–effort to peel ordinary legal matters out of the religious courts with their notoriously arbitrary judgments.