Saudi ’sex braggarts’ go on trial for kiss-and-tell TV show

JEDDAH - Four Saudi Arabian men have gone on trial in Jeddah for boasting about their sexual conquests on a TV talk show, a media report said Monday.

The charges against the men are believed to be connected to a July edition of the Bold Red Line show on the LBC satellite channel, in which Mazen Abdel-Jawad, 32, along with three unnamed others, told the show about his premarital sexual adventures.

Abdel-Jawad was arrested in August by Saudi Arabia’s religious police and charged with “publicising vice”, after he had detailed explicit descriptions of his liaisons and how he had picked up women.

The episode, aired at the end of July, shocked many in the country, where the state enforces a puritanical brand of Islam.

His statements have been viewed as “promoting sinful behaviour”, the English-language Arab News reported.

Court sources told the daily that Sheikh Mohammed Amin, who is acting as the judge in the case, asked the defendants to reply in writing to the charges before the next court session, the date of which has not been announced.

Eight days after Abdel-Jawad’s arrest, authorities closed LBC’s offices in western Jeddah for airing programmes “contrary to morals and ethics”.

The satellite channel was also accused of operating in the kingdom without a licence.

Abdel-Jawad said, in his defence, that LBC’s producers had edited the programme to portray him badly.

If convicted, Abdel-Jawad could face either prison or flogging.