On Tuesday, the Saudi authorities announced prison sentences for five judges, a former ambassador, and a number of officials, on charges of “corruption and abuse of influence”, while the wealthy kingdom has been engaged in an anti-corruption campaign for more than four years.
The Control and Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) announced on its Twitter account, “The issuance of judicial rulings once morest a number of those involved in financial and administrative corruption crimes, following their convictions were proven.”
She explained that the list of those convicted includes “a preliminary ruling convicting a judge, a former Shura Council member, of the crime of participating in bribery and punishing him with imprisonment for 7 years and 6 months.”
#Observation_and_Anti-Corruption_Authority Announces the issuance of judicial rulings for a number of criminal cases it has handled
# Judicial _ judgments once morest the corrupt pic.twitter.com/w48OF38cUm— Control and Anti-Corruption Authority (@nazaha_gov_sa) June 14, 2022
Likewise, “a preliminary ruling was received convicting a judge, the head of the execution court in one of the regions, of the crime of abusing his position for personal benefit and benefiting from it, and punishing him with one year’s imprisonment.”
Also, sentences ranging between one and four years in prison were issued once morest a judge and two former judges, who were convicted of forgery, bribery and abuse of influence.
The authority also announced a five-year prison sentence for a former ambassador, a soldier and a member of the public prosecutor’s office, who were convicted of “abusing influence and taking bribes.”
The Saudi authorities did not provide names or details of the convicted judges, noting that reports by human rights organizations spoke in April of a campaign of arrests that affected a number of judges. It was not clear if these judges were included in these provisions.
The supervisory authority confirmed that it is “continuing to bring to justice anyone who is proven to be involved in financial and administrative corruption crimes.”
Since taking office in 2017, the Crown Prince and the country’s de facto ruler, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has launched a massive anti-corruption campaign that has included the detention of dozens of princes, businessmen and politicians in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
Another crackdown followed, which saw the arrest of senior military officials as well as junior bureaucrats.
Last September, the Saudi monarch, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, dismissed the Director of Public Security on accusations of corruption and abuse of influence, and decided to refer him for investigation.
The authorities have allocated a toll-free phone number to report any suspicions of corruption, while banners circulate in the streets urging citizens to respond to the “Integrity” commission.
The kingdom, which ranks 52nd out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, has faced decades of graft and the practice of “wasta” or nepotism.
At the end of 2020, Prince Mohammed informed the Shura Council that the anti-corruption campaign had returned 247 billion Saudi riyals ($66 billion) in the past three years, in addition to recovering billions of other assets, real estate and shares.
