JEDDAH: A Saudi taxi driver in Madinah has been held by police after being caught harassing a girl with special needs in a one-minute video.
The video went viral on social media, achieving a million views and causing a wave of anger among people in Saudi Arabia, who demanded his arrest.
The video showed the young man, who works with a private taxi company, verbally and physically harassing the girl in the back of his car.
He said to the girl, who cannot talk, “Why don’t you talk to me? Are you deaf!“
The girl in the back seat of the car tried to scream and he said: “You are beautiful, like the moon!” with the lights on inside the car while he was driving, his head turned to her in the back seat. He switched off the lights and tried to touch the victim, threatening to break her phone if she did not stop recording the video. He continued to threaten her and she kept screaming as he tried to take her phone.
Within less than 10 hours Attorney General Sheikh Saudi bin Abdullah issued a warrant for the driver’s arrest and for proceedings to be brought against him.
Madinah area police caught and arrested the man immediately, who is in his 20s.
Lawyer Majed Garoub told Arab News this was an example of “positive and proactive interaction from the public prosecution without the need for formal complaints ... the prosecution took charge of the issue, arrested the offender and started the proceedings without the need for a complaint by the girl with special needs.”
Driver held in Saudi Arabia after video shows his harassment of special needs girl
Driver held in Saudi Arabia after video shows his harassment of special needs girl
Saudi Arabia launches initiative to reroute Gulf cargo to Red Sea ports
- The initiative comes as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been severely disrupted by the widening conflict in the region
- Since the US and Israel struck Iran last month, Tehran has moved to restrict passage through the waterway
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has launched an initiative to redirect shipping from ports in the Arabian Gulf to its Red Sea ports amid the ongoing US-Israel-Iran war.
Transport Minister Saleh Al-Jasser, who also chairs the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani), launched the Logistics Corridors Initiative alongside Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority Governor Suhail Abanmi, Mawani President Suliman Al-Mazroua, and other officials, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The initiative will establish dedicated operational corridors to receive containers and cargo redirected from ports in the Kingdom's Eastern Region and other Gulf Cooperation Council states to Jeddah Islamic Port and other Red Sea coast ports.
Al-Jasser said the Kingdom was committed to ensuring supply-chain stability and the smooth flow of goods through global trade routes. Jeddah Islamic Port and other west coast ports, he added, were already playing a key role in accommodating shipments redirected from the east, while also linking Gulf cargo to regional and international markets.
The initiative comes as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been severely disrupted by the widening conflict in the region. Iran has long threatened to close the strait — the world's most critical oil and gas chokepoint, through which roughly a fifth of global oil supplies pass — in the event of a war.
Since the US and Israel struck Iran last month, Tehran has moved to restrict passage through the waterway, sending freight rates soaring and forcing shipping companies to seek alternative routes.
Saudi Arabia's Red Sea ports offer a viable bypass, connecting Gulf cargo to global markets without passing through the strait.
