 |
||
|
||
|
||
A London businessman faces becoming the first Briton to be flogged in Saudi Arabia for 17 years after a court ordered that he receive 800 lashes and eight years in jail for running an illegal drinking club.
Gary O'Nions's sentence comes as six Britons begin their appeals in Riyadh today over Saudi claims that some of them led a bombing campaign in a war over the lucrative trade in bootleg alcohol.
Their families fear the men will be harshly treated as the Saudi authorities try to cover up the work of militant extremists who are thought to have staged the explosions that killed two Britons working in the kingdom.
All six have refused a Saudi ultimatum to accept a deal that involves them pleading guilty. If they continue their legal fight they face harsher punishments. They told lawyers at the weekend they would say in court that confessions were beaten out of them.
Diplomatic relations with Riyadh will be badly damaged if the Saudis persist with the flogging of O'Nions, 56, and sentence two of the six Britons, Sandy Mitchell and William Sampson, to death. The men's families complain that the British Foreign Office has not done enough to help them.
O'Nions's wife, Mary, said Foreign Office officials had not even told her about the verdict. "This is all being done in secret, and Britain is doing nothing," she said.
O'Nions also faces a $1,154,127 fine for running the Empire Club in Riyadh, one of the most successful drinking clubs used by expatriates in Saudi, where all alcohol is banned. The lashes, with a cane, will be given in prison in batches so that Mr O'Nions can recover between beatings.
The last Briton to be flogged in the kingdom was John Kelly, an engineer, who received 250 lashes in 1985 for alcohol offences.
While westerners are usually spared this punishment, the authorities are perturbed at the adverse publicity they have received over the continuing protests of the British suspects and their families.
One of the lawyers for the men said: "Our concern is they may wish to make an exhibition of some of them to pass the message, 'don't cause us embarrassment or you will suffer'."
The lawyers say the Saudis are pressuring them not to retract their confessions.
(This report appears on news.com.au)
|
||
|
||
|
||