Saudi Affairs
As temperatures in the Mid-East desert kingdom are currently on the rise during the boiling days of summer, it seems Saudi Arabia has also been recently heated up by a new social scandal.
Two young men from prominent Saudi families are being probed on charges of orchestrating and filming a sexual assault on a Saudi teen-aged girl by a Nigerian driver, a high-ranking official said Tuesday.
The sex scandal, which has immensely shocked Saudis throughout the oil-rich kingdom, erupted after the accused circulated footage of the assault through mobile phones equipped with cameras. It should be noted that camera phones are widely used in Saudi Arabia despite an official ban.
"The two Saudis and the driver were arrested a week ago after the girl's family lodged a complaint with authorities," the official said, requesting anonymity.
"They will be meted out the strongest punishment if convicted by an Islamic court," he said.
Saudi Arabia, which applies a strict form of sharia, or Islamic law, imposes the death penalty for rape.
The phone clip shows the secondary school girl, aged 17, pleading as she is assaulted by the driver, while one of the two men, apparently her former boyfriend, hurls abuse at her.
Sources close to the investigation said the 19-year-old, who had fallen out with the girl, was egged on to exact revenge by the second Saudi accused, 23, after she rebuffed the latter's advances. The Nigerian accused of raping the girl worked as a driver for the family of the former boyfriend.
Many Saudis have expressed rage at the men's behavior on various Internet sites.
Meanwhile, a Riyadh police source said that policemen have been deployed outside the houses of the men's families for fear they will be attacked by members of the girl's family seeking revenge.
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