Jeddah ex-mayor denies graft charges

A former Jeddah mayor on trial in connection with the flood disaster that killed dozens in 2009 told a court that the accusation that he approved of construction in the Um Al-Khair residential plan are false. The area is one of the worst hit by floods because it forms a part of a valley where residential homes should not have been built. The mayor added that he had approved the plan for the Al-Musaed residential area based on the premise that the plan was implemented following a ministerial committee’s study report that the location was not in a valley. The court postponed hearing until Oct. 11. The judge confronted the former mayor with his confession in a signed statement during interrogation that he received SR 5 million from a businessman. He responded by saying the amount was part of a share he owned through his contribution to a SR 50 million residential project — the Matar Qadim (Old Airport) Plan — owned by another businessman. The businessman, who paid the SR 50 million and who confessed to giving the amount to the former mayor, said that he was an old friend who was forced to confess while suffering bad physical and physiological abuse. The former mayor also said he refused to approve the Um Al-Khair plan when it was filed to him by the Al-Azizia Spring Department. He then found out that a deed was issued for the plan, which in turn forced him to reconsider the location. He requested the Mayor’s Office’s department in charge of flood-related affairs to approach the ministry about it and he left the post before the study was executed and before the plan was approved. The prosecution insisted on its accusation that he refused the plan at first, but later approved it for study. The second defendant — the businessman accused of paying the SR 5 million — denied all charges of bribery and said that he had been practicing business in the field of residential plans for the past 50 years, had sold many plans and that he had a sound reputation in all his dealings. He added that the arrest in front of his family and employees “destroyed my life.” He said a businessman owned the old airport plan and that he and the former mayor contributed to the plan with shares and that he had checks and documents to prove it. Arab news