Mobile phone thief gets five years, 500 lashes

A Saudi court sentenced a local man for five years in prison and ordered him lashed 500 times in public for robbing another Saudi at knife point, the Arabic language daily Alriyadh reported on Thursday.

The man, in his 20s, and six friends stopped their car near a vehicle that was stuck in sand outside the capital Riyadh and threatened its driver with a knife unless he gives them his mobile phone and money.

After stealing his phone and SR200, they fled the scene but the victim managed to memorize their car number, the paper said.

Police later arrested the man, who was tried and sentenced to five years in prison and 500 lashes with the whip. He insisted that his friends did not help him.

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