JEDDAH: The prosecutor in the case of a woman journalist who was handed 60 lashes for her role in an LBC program covering the sex exploits of a Saudi man has appealed the ruling and called for a harsher punishment.

Suleiman Al-Jumaei, lawyer for sex braggart Mazen Abdul Jawad, said the prosecutor appealed the sentence handed to LBC media person R.A., one of seven accused in the case.

“The public prosecutor challenged the punishment of 60 lashes saying it was too light and not in sync with her role as a coordinator and the one who prepared and advertised the program,” said Al-Jumaei.

“The verdict, however, is only at its primary stage. It will not be executed without the approval of the appeals court. The court may either uphold or revoke it,” he added.

He also expressed his worry at how slowly the Disputes Committee for Publications is dealing with Abdul Jawad’s complaint against the LBC. The complaint was submitted three months ago to the committee, which operates under the Ministry of Culture and Information.

Abdul Jawad claims that the LBC edited and re-contextualized a long video shoot into a short segment to present him in the worst possible light.

“LBC has violated printing and publications regulations by portraying Abdul Jawad in a bad manner, particularly as it goes against the religious values and traditions of Saudi Arabia. It was the channel that violated these values first when it filmed the segment. The channel also violated Saudi law by operating from an unlicensed Jeddah office,” he said.

He added that if the Disputes Committee for Publications does not carry out its job properly then his client has the right to sue the Ministry of Culture and Information for damages.

“When the committee’s decision comes, I will study it and pursue the channel anywhere in the world if it is in the interests of my client,” he said. The lawyer has also submitted an additional petition to the committee urging it to pass judgment quickly.

The Ministry of Culture and Information says it has forwarded Abdul Jawad’s complaint to the Disputes Committee for Publications, which would only examine whether there are violations of regulations pertaining to printing and publication.

Arab News failed to get any comment on the matter from the channel’s office. Malik Maktabi, the host of “Bold Red Line,” said in an earlier statement that he was not authorized to comment on the case.

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia has closed the Jeddah office of a Lebanon-based television network after it aired an interview with a Saudi man speaking about his sexual escapades, a government spokesman said on Sunday.

Mazen Abdul-Jawad, 32, was arrested last month in the Red Sea city of Jeddah after shocking Saudi Arabia, one of the most conservative countries in the world, by recounting details of his sexual exploits on Lebanese channel LBC.

The divorced father of four spoke to camera from his bedroom in Jeddah about how couples can spice up their sex lives.

“Everything happens in this room,” he said on an episode of the salacious show “Ahmar Bilkhat al-Areed” (Wide Red Lines), before launching into descriptions of foreplay techniques and tricks for cruising women on the streets of Jeddah.

A spokesman for the ministry of culture and information in Riyadh said a committee had decided to close the Jeddah office of LBC because of the interview.

The daily al-Watan newspaper said authorities also closed other offices of LBC, which is mainly owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, in the kingdom.

Abdul-Jawad has been charged with publicizing vice and lawyers say he may face the death penalty.

Like many Arab countries, Saudi Arabia prohibits sexually explicit content on television and in newspapers, magazines and books.

RIYADH — The Saudi offices of a Lebanon-based satellite station controlled by tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal could face closure over a racy talk show featuring a man boasting about his sex life, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The local operations of the Saudi billionaire’s broadcaster LBC could be shut down because of the “offensive nature” of the programme, Abdullah al-Othaim, a senior district judge in Jeddah, told the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat.

Contacted by AFP, LBC chief executive Pierre Daher said the company had decided not to comment publicly on the controversy.

Jeddah investigators continued to examine evidence to see what charges would be filed against Saudi citizen Mazen Abdul-Jawad, whose discussion of his sex life on LBC’s “Bold Red Line” in July led to his arrest on Friday.

Two other men who took part in the programme were also arrested, while a fourth fled to Morocco, local newspapers cited Saudi police as saying.

Abdul-Jawad’s confessions — that he first had sex at 14 with a neighbour, used sex aids and liked to use his cellphone’s Bluetooth function to try to pick up women — outraged Saudi conservatives.

His actions allegedly violated strict Islamic sharia law, the basis of the Saudi legal system, media reports said.

Jeddah police spokesman Suleiman al-Mutawae told AFP on Sunday that it could take time to determine the charges against Abdul-Jawad, a Saudi Airlines employee thought to be in his 30s, because there was no legal precedent.

A five-minute clip from the show on Youtube, viewed more than 430,000 times but now blocked by the government censor, has sparked intense criticism from conservatives on Saudi Internet sites and triggered calls for government action.

It shows a casually dressed Abdul-Jawad sitting in an apartment talking about his sexual activities. He has since apologised in interviews with local papers, accusing the show’s producers of breaking a pledge to mask his face.

It was not clear whether Abdul-Jawad was filmed in Saudi Arabia or Lebanon.

The case has focused attention on LBC, which broadcasts across the Arab world and hosts one of the most popular regional programmes, the music contest and reality show “Star Academy.”

Through LBC and his regional entertainment company Rotana, Alwaleed has pushed hard to break down Saudi Arabia’s tough bans on cinemas and popular music concerts and its taboos on salacious or non-Islamic television content.

But he has come under stiff opposition from conservatives. In July, the first ever Jeddah Film Festival, sponsored by Rotana, was cancelled the day before it opened because of pressure from fundamentalist clerics.

That move temporarily forced Rotana to shelve plans to begin showing films publicly inside the kingdom.

A nephew of King Abdullah, Alwaleed has royal status and his wealth is estimated by Forbes magazine at 13.3 billion dollars. His status and riches have protected his promotion of entertainment and women’s rights.

In recent months, however, his conservative brother Prince Khalid bin Talal has lashed out at him several times for violating Islamic principles and promoting what he called immorality.