King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has pardoned a journalist who was sentenced to 60 lashes for her involvement in a controversial TV show in which a Saudi man boasted publicly about his sex life.
Rosanna al-Yami was sentenced to be flogged next Saturday for her role in the July broadcasting on the Lebanese satellite channel LBC of the taboo-breaking episode of the Bold Red Line program.
RELIEF
Yami expressed relief on Monday after the royal pardon, thanking the king for his intervention.
“I am not a heroine,” she told the Dubai-based TV channel al-Arabiya. “I am just an ordinary human being. Society sentenced me to death before the judge even passed sentence.”
Yami, 22, worked as a coordinator for the program, but denied involvement in the now notorious “sex-braggart” saga, which attracted international attention. The offending episode sent shock waves across Saudi Arabia, which enforces the ultra-puritanical Wahhabi Islam in which dating is impossible, premarital sex a crime and the sexes are strictly separated in almost all circumstances.
During the program, Mazen Abdel-Jawad, a divorced Saudi father, described his sexual relationships and how he picked up women using Bluetooth mobile phone messaging.
He was also shown with sex toys, condoms and lubricants in his red-themed bedroom and filmed cruising the streets of Jeddah looking for women.
“I had nothing to do with Mazen Abdel-Jawad’s show,” Yami said at the weekend. “The verdict was just because I cooperated with LBC.”
Abdullah ordered that her case and that of another journalist — a pregnant woman also accused of involvement in the program — be referred to a committee of the ministry of education and culture, which is in charge of the media.
POPULAR PROGRAMS
LBC is extremely popular in Saudi Arabia, with many Saudis tuning in to its western-style entertainment programs and talk shows.
The channel, owned by the Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, had to close down its offices in Riyadh and Jeddah because of the row.
Abdel-Jawad was sentenced to five years in prison and 1,000 lashes earlier this month. Three male friends who appeared on the show with him were each sentenced to two-year terms and 300 lashes.
Saudi judges have wide powers of discretion and can issue sentences based on their own interpretation of Islamic law, which has led to some arbitrary rulings. Abdullah, 85, has begun to reform education and the judiciary in recent years, partly to discourage Islamic militancy, but he still faces stiff resistance from conservative clerics.
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