H.E. Adel A. Al-Jubeir
Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the U.S.A.
Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
601 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20037
Fax: (202) 944.5983/ 3113
Your Excellency:
We write to express our amazement that two producers of the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) television program, Ahmar Bel Khat El-Arid — Rozanna Yami and a pregnant colleague — are facing serious punishment for “facilitating the expression of sin” for words spoken on air by a participant in the show.
The story of the participant, Mazen Abd El-Gawad, became well known subsequent to his appearance on Ahmar Bel Khat El-Arid, on which he boasted of numerous sexual conquests and for which he was subsequently charged by Saudi courts with acting sinfully. The two producers were charged with, in effect, helping Mazan to sin by providing technical support to the broadcast — or, put it another way, for doing their jobs.
Only the intervention of King Abdullah this week has prevented a court in Jeddah from carrying out a sentence of sixty lashes upon Yami’s back. The fate of her colleague is still unclear.
All this comes only weeks after the LBC’s offices in Jeddah were shut by authorities following the Mazan interview. The official reason given by the Ministry of Culture and Information was that LBC was operating without a license. By extension, of course, the owner of the station, Prince Al Waleed Ben Talal, should also be facing charges — yet, so far, the prince has had to endure no such indignity though we presume he takes ultimate responsibility for all that goes out over his airwaves.
We understand that, following her last-minute pardon from the king, Yami’s case will be transferred to the Ministry of the Interior for further review and possible disciplinary action. Your Excellency, this pause in the court proceeding would be an excellent time for Saudi authorities to use all their influence to see that the absurdity of charging technicians for doing nothing more than working on a broadcast. To do anything else will be to forfeit any claim by Saudi Arabia to modernity.
We would be grateful for your response.
Very truly yours,
Kevin McDermott
Jeremy Main
Co-chairmen – Freedom of the Press Committee
cc:
Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation
Beirut 165853 – Zouk 111
Lebanon
Fax: (011.961.9) 85.09.16
Prince Nayif Bin-Abd-al-Aziz Al Saud
Ministry of the Interior
c/o H.E. Adel Al-Jubeir
Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the U.S.A.
Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
601 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20037
Fax: (202) 944.3113
Abdul-Rahman Hazzaa
Ministry of the Interior
c/o H.E. Adel Al-Jubeir
Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the U.S.A.
Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
601 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20037
Fax: (202) 944.3113
Ambassador Fawzi Bin Abdul Majeed Shobokshi
Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
to the United Nations
809 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
Fax: (212) 983.4895
H.E. James B. Smith
U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia
Embassy of the United States of America
P. O. Box 94309
Riyadh 11693
Saudi Arabia
Fax: (011.966.1) 488.7360
Mr. Khaled Al-Maeena
Editor-in-Chief
Arab News
almaeena@arabnews.com
Arabic Network for Human Rights Information
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(Downtown, 4th Floor, Flat 55)
Cairo
Egypt
info@anhri.net
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