Driver held in Saudi Arabia after video shows his harassment of special needs girl

Saudi Arabian women board a taxi in Riyadh. (File Photo: AFP)

JEDDAH: A Saudi taxi driver in Madinah has been held by police after being caught harassing a girl with special needs in a one-minute video.
The video went viral on social media, achieving a million views and causing a wave of anger among people in Saudi Arabia, who demanded his arrest.
The video showed the young man, who works with a private taxi company, verbally and physically harassing the girl in the back of his car.
He said to the girl, who cannot talk, “Why don’t you talk to me? Are you deaf!“
The girl in the back seat of the car tried to scream and he said: “You are beautiful, like the moon!” with the lights on inside the car while he was driving, his head turned to her in the back seat. He switched off the lights and tried to touch the victim, threatening to break her phone if she did not stop recording the video. He continued to threaten her and she kept screaming as he tried to take her phone.
Within less than 10 hours Attorney General Sheikh Saudi bin Abdullah issued a warrant for the driver’s arrest and for proceedings to be brought against him.
Madinah area police caught and arrested the man immediately, who is in his 20s.
Lawyer Majed Garoub told Arab News this was an example of “positive and proactive interaction from the public prosecution without the need for formal complaints ... the prosecution took charge of the issue, arrested the offender and started the proceedings without the need for a complaint by the girl with special needs.”