The Administrative Court has issued a verdict in absentia to force an importer to pay SR642,730 to a Saudi businessman who paid for goods from England and received imitations from China. The importer offered the businessman a container of fake electrical goods worth over SR1.5 million in return for dropping the case, but the businessman's agent informed officials in Makkah Region about the attempted bribe and they seized the container in preparation for destroying the goods. The Committee for Deciding Commercial Fraud Cases, an affiliate of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry branch in Jeddah Governorate, issued the verdict, against the importer and another man involved in the case, which includes a SR250,000 fine. Through his agent, the Saudi trader filed a lawsuit against the importer to be reimbursed his private right represented by what he paid to the importers, after the man refused to return the money and disappeared. The verdict forces the defendant, whose name is being withheld, to pay the businessman, whose name is also being withheld. In announcing the verdict, the agent of the plaintiff expressed his satisfaction. The verdict becomes binding as the defendant did not submit any objection during the 15-day period provided to do so and the Administrative Court in Jeddah tried several times to reach the defendant. It was registered in official papers that “he has moved to an unknown destination.” He added that the case was over. “We will write to the region's governorate to expedite destroying the goods in the container that was presented as a bribe after the issuance of the verdict in absentia in favor of the plaintiff to be paid SR642,730.”
