8 years, 1,800 lashes for rape attempt

A Saudi man was on Saturday lashed 80 times in a public place as part of a court sentence jailing him for eight years and ordering him whipped 1,800 times for trying to rape a Saudi university student.

The man, a bus driver, was transporting the girl back home when he reversed direction and drove her to an isolated place where he tried to rape her. But the resisting girl managed to flee and went straight to the police.

Newspapers said the man, in his 50s, was lashed in a market place in the western town of Taif, adding that he would received the rest of the lashes in batches later.

Court orders defendant to dig grave

A Saudi court asked a man sentenced to 15 days in prison for having liquor to dig a grave to reduce his jail term by five days, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Saudi Arabia’s feared Islamic police, had arrested the man for being drunk and sent him to court in the central Dawadmi province.

“The judge told him to dig a grave within a month so he will have his jail term reduced by a third,” the Arabic language daily Sabq said.

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