950 Lashes for Phone Sex

(Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) I'm not exactly sure what the criminal offense is but the punishment is harsh.

A Saudi man is facing 600 lashes and his 'lover' 350 after a phone-sex affair that led to the woman's divorce.

Today a Saudi appeals court upheld a jail and flogging verdict against the biochemist and his female student whose research contact was ruled to be a front for the affair.

The biochemist, Khalid Zahrani, said today that he found out this week from the court offices that three judges had approved the verdict.

He was sentenced last year to eight months in prison and 600 lashes and his student to four months in prison and 350 lashes for establishing a telephone relationship that the court said led her to divorce her husband.

The woman's husband filed a complaint saying that Zahrani sweet-talked the wife into divorcing him.

Also: The Jawa Report