The female student recently sentenced to 90 lashes and two months in jail for assaulting her headmistress and threatening to kill her has the right to appeal the verdict, Sheikh Riyadh Al-Muhaidib, President of Jubail Governorate Court, has said. The student can move the Court of Cassation for reconsideration of the verdict even though it has become final after approval of the parties. “The case can be solved amicably if the two parties agree. In this case the private right drops but the public right cannot be dropped except with an order from the ruler,” Al-Muhaidib said. The official said the lashing sentence would be carried out in prison and not in the school, as was published in some media. The official also clarified that the female's age is 21 years and not 12. It has been learnt that some philanthropists in the region have intervened so as to settle the case amicably by convincing the headmistress to drop her private right against her former student. The case attracted widespread public interest after it was initially reported that the student was sentenced for bringing a mobile phone onto the school premises. But the Ministry of Justice on Tuesday clarified that the sentence was for assaulting the headmistress and threatening to kill her. The ministry maintained that the matter was only referred to the court after all attempts to solve the issue within the Education Administration were exhausted.
