Saudi Arabia: Genie in Court · Global Voices
Haifa Alrasheed

“I was under the influence of a genie” is the latest excuse for administrative corruption in Saudi Arabia. According to the Saudi newspaper Okaz [Ar], a judge in Al Madina was accused of corruption, taking bribes and taking over real estate. His defense was: “It was not me, I was under the influence of a genie!” It is therefore no a surprise, when Saudi netizens decided to have fun with the story. Soon enough, the hashtag #jinni -which refers to genie in Arabic- started trending on our Twitter timelines. Here are some of the reactions.
Ahmad Bagadoodexplains why he crossed the traffic light:
Fouad Hassan calls for the genie:
Khalid or @Mashi9a7 made a few remarks on this:
Wajd announces a new movie:
As a follow up,  Okaz published a story [Ar] about a religious man named Fayez Al-Gothami who has made the genie “talk” to him in a setting attended by some members of the religious police. According to Al-Gothaimi, the court's judge Fahad Al-Muhaimeed, asked him to prepare a letter explaining all the details of the interrogation and the corruption scams the “genie” had confessed to.
Yaser Alrefai justifies the genie's confessions:
Shaker AlSufyani thinks of taking advantage of the situation:
:P
Essam Al-Zamel remarks on Jeddah's crises:
wasazib would like to improve his work situation:
يا جماعة أبغى أزبط مديري الجديد….أحد يعرف جني فاضي من هنا و لا من هنا؟ #jinni
Feras Aalam asks to take a serious position on this regard:
Bader (Abu Jehad) talks about the release of a new book:
Okaz [Ar] then published a story saying that the religious police denied witnessing the “genie's hearing session.”
MsSDigitaL writes:
Finally, Manal Fahmy comments:
Good Saudis are celebrating #halloween this year in their special way #Jinni