Appeals court acquits official in Jeddah floods case

JEDDAH: The Administrative Court of Appeals in Jeddah acquitted a civil engineer of three charges leveled against him in the Jeddah floods case. A court had earlier sentenced him to five years in prison and a fine of SR100,000.
In the same case, a former official and a businessman were recently included on the list of wanted men.
The lower court had convicted the engineer of breaching the duties of his job by covering up mistakes of the projects carried out by one of the construction companies.
The court also convicted him of receiving bribes when he supervised the project to discharge rainwater in Jeddah, and also of wasting public funds.
The accused denied all charges and submitted a six-page memorandum of cross-objections to the court of appeals in Jeddah. A judicial committee of the court of appeals acquit the engineer of all charges after studying the lower court rulings and considering the defendant's arguments.
Mohammad Al-Mouinis, the engineer's advocate, said he is happy with the verdict because the defendant did not know how to defend himself in the lower court and did not introduce any evidence to prove his innocence.
The new developments come after the Court of Appeals in Makkah overturned a sentence of a former official who served as a director general at Jeddah secretariat for three years.
While overturning the ruling, the court referred the case to another judge for consideration. Hearings are expected to start sometime this week.