Saudi Arabia: Mother jailed one year for assaulting teachers at school

Abu Dhabi: The Criminal Court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a mother to one year in jail for beating up two teachers at a Riyadh school, Saudi media reported.

The woman was found guilty of physically and verbally assaulting two teachers (an Egyptian and a Saudi) as the students were leaving a private school in Riyadh in November 2018, lawyer Abdul Aziz Al Mahayli told Al Jazirah newspaper.

Al Mahayli revealed that the defendant’s lawyer offered a settlement to the teachers amounting to SR100,000 ($26,600) for the waiver, but they refused.

The lawyer said the mother first filed a complaint with the police, who summoned them. But when they came, they filed a counter complaint against her for beating them up. The case was then referred to the Public Prosecution, he said.

He added: “Two cases were referred to the court, a case from the mother against the teachers and vice versa, and the public prosecutor raised a case against the mother and a case against the teachers.”

Al Mahayli said the case against the teachers was dismissed after witnesses testified that it was the mother who assaulted the teachers and misbehaved verbally against them, so the judge decided to dismiss her case and complete the teachers’ lawsuit proceedings.

Al Mahayli said the mother was handed down a prison sentence of one year, with a stay of execution for three years, for causing chaos in the school and the use of “Snapchat” application to talk about the incident.

A stay of execution is a court order to temporarily suspend the execution of a court judgment or other court order.

The lawyer said the defendant had been detained in advance during the litigation procedures and the detention time will be deducted from her jail term.

The Riyadh Education Department followed the case and raised a letter to the Riyadh police requesting that the rights of its teachers be protected, considering the many assaults against teachers that some regions of the Kingdom witnessed during past periods, the lawyer said.

Al Mahayli explained that some of the disputes were amicably settled out of the court, either before they reach the court or after they are filed.

The incident occurred when the students were leaving the school. The mother asked an Egyptian teacher to bring her son from the playground, but the teacher turned down her request saying it was not his duty. The mother was annoyed, beat up the teacher and slapped him in the face. When a Saudi teacher came to his rescue, he was also slapped repeatedly on his face, according to court documents.

The case captured the public opinion’s attention at the time, while a large number of people demanded justice for the teachers, considering their good reputation and dedication to their work. They denounced what the mother had done, especially since she had precedents in assaulting teachers in the school.