Nine Saudi men, women rebuked for meeting

A court in Saudi Arabia rebuked nine Saudi men and women after they were caught sitting together at a coffee shop, Sharq newspaper said on Saturday.

The nine were caught by security agents at the café in the central town of Madina and handed over to police, who referred them to court, it said.

The prosecutor demanded lashing and jail for them on the grounds it was an illegitimate meeting as they are not related to each other, the paper said.

“But the court just rebuked them after they proved that they were together for theoretical diving lessons by a diver authorized by the government.’

Gender-mixing is banned in public in Saudi Arabia, one of the most conservative Muslim nations.