By IINA,
Makkah : A criminal court in Makkah has awarded jail terms ranging from one to three months and fines of up to SR90,000 for 10 people who were found guilty in the collapse of a hotel which claimed lives of at least 76 Haj pilgrims, including four UAE nationals, two years ago. Seven officials from the Makkah Mayor’s office and an official from the Ministry of Commerce as well as the building’s owner and the contractor, who built the hotel, were held responsible for the accident that took place on January 5, 2006, just two days before the start of the annual pilgrimage of Haj. All the 10 accused decided to approach the Court of Cassation with an appeal challenging the verdict, according to court sources. The four-story structure housing pilgrims, Luluat Al-Kheir, in Gazza, in the vicinity of the Haram Mosque, collapsed while the pilgrims making final preparations for Haj.
The hotel’s owner was sentenced to three months in jail and a fine of SR90,000, while the other nine got one month’s jail and a fine of SR10,000 each. One of the accused was serving an advisor to the Makkah mayor while another was head of the Municipality branch. Judge Abdul Wali Al-Salami, who issued the verdict after trial proceedings that lasted for nearly two years, said that the sentences were light considering the huge loss of life because the public prosecutor could not establish total responsibility of the accused in the accident. “We treated all the accused with leniency on the ground of suspicion of full involvement in the crime with substantial evidence. The verdict was based on public rights and it did not cover the private rights of the victims. As no one represented the accident victims, their rights have not been considered in the judgment,” Al-Salami said. “None of the men admitted that they were directly or indirectly responsible,” the judge said adding that the sentences would be carried out only after endorsement from the Board of Appeal and that the men had a right to appeal.
The judge ordered all those accompanied with the accused, including their lawyers and legal agents, to go out of the courtroom while pronouncing judgment.
Ibrahim Al-Shadwi, the lawyer representing the owner of the hotel, said that his client was ill and would not be able to serve his prison sentence. “I plan to file a petition for clemency on medical grounds to get my client exempted from the jail sentence,” he said, adding that his client was brought to court from hospital, as the judge insisted that his presence was mandatory