Two days ago Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah “pardoned” two female staffers from Lebanese TV channel LBC who had been caught up in a controversial TV show. Now it emerges that there’s another LBC employee in jail, and facing 70 lashes for “working at an unlicensed TV station”. LBC is owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Omar Felimban was charged with working for LBC despite that it had lost its licence to broadcast, said Sulaiman Al Jumeii, a Jeddah-based lawyer working on Felimban’s behalf.
The WSJ says the two female journalists could still be banned from the profession, pay a fine or go to prison, but they will not face lashings, Al Jumeii said. He said he presented the case of Felimban to the Minister of Culture and Information on Tuesday and was assured the case would be transferred from the courts to the ministry soon.
