Posted by From Tunde Sanni on
A Nigerian was yesterday arrested in Makkah, Islam holiest city for possession and distribution of pornographic materials.
A Nigerian was yesterday arrested in Makkah, Islam holiest city for possession and distribution of pornographic materials.
The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention, arrested the Nigerian man who was living in the Saudi Arabia illegally for using kids to distribute pornographic DVDs to Saudi homes.
The Nigerian whose name has not been disclosed was not a first offender in the crime as he was said to have previously committed the offence and after serving out his prison terms was deported back to the country.
The suspect had been sentenced to two years in prison and 6,000 lashes on conviction commission of the first offence.
He served seven months in jail and was later deported but later returned to the kingdom with an Umrah visa.
Police in Makkah confessed the style used by the Nigerian was novel, as they have never seen the tactic employed by the suspect.
The Nigerian was allegedly passing business cards with his name and number printed, where prospective customers later reached out to him.
The suspect then used children to home-deliver the pornographic material. Many of the man's customers were young Saudis.
Eventually one of these business cards ended up in the hands of authorities, which then set up an easy sting operation by simply ordering some DVDs.
A search conducted on his residence after his arrest, revealed a cache of 800 pornographic DVDs.
Meanwhile four Filipino workers convicted in 2002 after spending up to four years in a local jail are set to be released as their employer has dropped the charges.
The four workers were charged with 'stealing laptops" worth over SR100, 000 {N400, 000} in December of 2002 while they were working as cargo handlers at King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah. Despite completing their sentence three and a half years ago, they still remain in Briman Prison.
Three of the workers (Manuel Fernandez, Julian Camat and Milo Ramos) were sentenced to one year and a half and the fourth (Napoleon Abdullah Fabregas), a Muslim convert, was sentenced to only one year in jail despite the fact that all four were charged with the same crime.
Fernandez was released last month after signing a waiver of claims from the company.
Independent human rights activist, and former member of the National Commission for Human Rights, Abdullah Sabig, told Arab News that the four Filipinos remained in jail after completing their sentences because of a series of legal mistakes and lapses. Sabig provided the four with assistance after the Philippine government agreed for him to translate for the men in court.
The human rights activist said that the first mistake made by the court was that the men were not informed of the proceedings every step of the way in writing and in a language that they understood. Second, he said the court issued a civil verdict and never issued a verdict on the private case filed by their employer for the losses incurred by the theft of the laptops.