BIP probes 7 Takhbeeb cases in Jeddah

By Adnan Al-Shabrawi JEDDAH — The Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution (BIP) last year investigated seven Takhbeeb cases (men persuading married women to leave their husbands or vice versa) referring six of them to the courts, according to informed sources. The sources said the bureau is currently investigating the seventh such case where a man tried to persuade a wife to abandon her husband. According to them, the Court of Appeals in Makkah has upheld a verdict issued by a preliminary court sentencing a young Saudi man to two years in prison and 1,000 lashes of the whip. The young man was condemned of persuading a number of married women to desert their husbands thus savaging their matrimonial lives. They said another Saudi citizen is facing charges of making illegal relationship with a married woman and tempting her to leave her husband. The sources said the BIP made a list of charges against the young man including accusations of Takhbeeb in addition to meddling in the affairs in the lives of the two married couples. The accused, who was not identified, denied all the charges and said the woman was studying in a university outside the Kingdom and they were only exchanging lectures and notes. He also denied knowledge of his photos with the woman on the Facebook and Twitter presented to the bureau by the husband. After completing the investigations, the BIP referred the case to the court. The BIP also referred a banker to the court on charges of persuading a woman customer to ask for divorce from her husband. Nasreen Al-Ghamdi, a female lawyer, said persuading a woman to leave her husband simply means damaging the married life of the couple. "This is a crime which is totally against Islam," she said recalling a Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that whoever entices a woman to leave her husband is damned. Ghamdi said Takhbeeb takes many forms including making a wife hate her husband, planting seeds of dissension among the married couple and glorifying separation between them. "Takhbeeb is a shameful act and a crime under Islam. It destroys the married life," she said adding that the sentences issued by the judge are discretionary consisting of imprisonment or whipping or the two punishments together.