JEDDAH – The General Court here will look next week into the case of Egyptian lawyer Ahmad Al-Jizawee who was arrested at the Jeddah airport four months ago as he was trying to smuggle narcotic pills into the Kingdom. The case was referred to the court after the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution (BIP) studied the charges leveled against Al-Jizawee. Sulamin Al-Haneeni, the representative of the National Society for Human Rights who is responsible for following up the proceedings of the case, said Al-Jizawee and his companions were stopped by customs officers at King Abdulaziz International Airport when they were found possessing huge quantities of possessing narcotic pills. “The BIP facilitated my mission and provided me and the legal consultant of the Egyptian Consulate in Jeddah with details about the case. We had been allowed to visit the accused several times,” said Al-Haneeni. The presiding judge is expected to summon the defendants to hear the charges against them before giving them the opportunity to submit their defense. Al-Jizawee was trying to smuggle 21,380 Xanax tablets, a controlled medicine containing alprazolam that is classified by Saudi authorities as a narcotic and is sold only under prescription. The pills were stashed inside baby powder containers and wooden boxes alongside copies of the Holy Qur'an. Al-Jizawee entered the Kingdom on an Umrah visa but he was not wearing ihram. Customs officers stopped him and searched his luggage after his behavior roused suspicion.
