WORLD> Middle East
Saudi king scraps flogging for woman journalist
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-26 19:04

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: The Saudi king has waived the lashing punishment for a Saudi female journalist charged with involvement in a TV sex show.

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The Information Ministry spokesman on Monday says King Abdullah ordered that the 60 lashes sentence for Rozanna al-Yami be dropped.

She was charged with involvement in a TV show in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex, a taboo subject in the ultraconservative country.

Al-Yami, who has denied the charges against her, is believed to be the first woman Saudi journalist to get a flogging punishment.

Spokesman Abdul-Rahman al-Hazza says the king ordered her case and that of another woman journalist, also accused of involvement in the program, be referred to an Information Ministry committee.