LONDON, 5 June — Saudi Ambassador to Britain Ghazi Algosaibi yesterday slammed the British press coverage of four Britons sentenced to jail and floggings in the Kingdom for illegally trading alcohol.
“The feeding frenzy of some British newspapers will not help anyone, least of all those convicted,” Algosaibi said in a statement. “Apparently there is a new maxim guiding some elements in the British media: To err abroad is human; never to be punished is British.”
British newspapers at the weekend said at least one of the men claimed he was being tortured in jail and forced to make a false confession. Algosaibi said the judgment was preliminary and that the men had various levels of appeal before the punishment was carried out.
The four men appeared in a Riyadh court on May 26. Kevin Hawkins was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail and 500 lashes, Kevin Hartley to two-and-a-half years and 300 lashes, Paul Moss to two years and 500 lashes and David Mornin to one year and 300 lashes. Mornin was also fined SR40,000. A Foreign Office spokeswoman said last Thursday that the men had the right to appeal and were likely to ask for the flogging to be commuted in exchange for longer jail terms.
In 1998, Algosaibi dismissed as “laughable” claims by two British nurses, convicted of stabbing to death a colleague, that they confessed after being threatened with gang rape. The pair, Lucille McLaughlin and Deborah Parry, were later released and returned to Britain after being pardoned by the Saudi government.
