The lawyer representing Mazen Abdul Jawad, the Saudi on trial for describing his sexual exploits on Lebanese television, has accused the LBC satellite channel of deliberately making unavailable the pre-edited cuts of the offending program by taking them back to Lebanon. Suliman Al-Jumai told Al-Watan newspaper Thursday that his client had asked for the tapes to be released in order to back his claims that heavy editing and voice-dubbing were deliberately conducted by a Lebanese and an Egyptian program maker in order to portray Abdul Jawad in as negative a light as possible. The two LBC employees, who were working legally in the Kingdom subsequently fled abroad, according to Al-Jumai, taking the incriminating tapes with them. Presiding judge Muhammed Amin Mardad, Al-Jumai said, had been made aware of his client's position at the first hearing earlier in the week. Al-Jumai also contested the jurisdiction of the court, according to Al-Watan, citing Royal Order No M/22 of Ramadan 30,1421, which he said rules that all cases involving the media be resolved by the Ministry of Culture and Information. The sentencing of Abdul Jawad and five others facing charges in the case has been postponed until the end of next week following the last hearing on Wednesday in which the prosecution argued that a criminal evidence report showed conclusively that the voice on the “Bold Red Line” program was that of Abdul Jawad.
