(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Two Saudi Arabian airport workers have been jailed for four years each and will be lashed 1,000 times for sexually harassing two teenage Iranian boys, a report said yesterday.
Saudi news website Sabq said a criminal court in Jeddah issued the verdict.
Authorities in April began legal proceedings against two police officers after allegations of "sexual harassment" against the two pilgrims at Jeddah's airport, official media reported at the time.
The case prompted Iran's culture minister to say his country had suspended pilgrimages to holy places in Saudi Arabia "until the criminals are tried and punished".
Iranian media reported that the incident occurred as the youths prepared to return home after a pilgrimage to Makkah and Madinah in late March.
About 500,000 Iranians perform the Umrah, or lesser pilgrimage, annually.
Saudi Arabia's interior ministry had vowed that the kingdom's Islamic-based legal system would "ensure the strictest penalties for perpetrators of these type of crimes, which are condemned by all sectors of Saudi Muslim society".
*Iran yesterday offered condolences to the families of four Saudis who died from an apparent accidental chemical poisoning during a pilgrimage in Iran, after Riyadh summoned Tehran's ambassador over the incident.
Thirty-six Saudis on a pilgrimage to the Shia holy city of Mashhad were hospitalised on Sunday morning, suffering from nausea and dizziness, Abdullah Bahrami, the director of the Imam Reza hospital, was quoted as saying by official news agency Irna.
Four, three children and a teenager, died in the hospital after inhaling toxic gas at the hotel in Mashhad, Iranian media reported.
Saudi officials on Tuesday called for Iranian authorities to "quickly carry out investigation procedures" into the incident.
"Iranians are well-known for their hospitality and we hope this issue is resolved," said Marzieh Afkham, Iran's foreign ministry spokeswoman, expressing sympathy and condolences.
A senior Iranian official yesterday said the incident had no "political or international" links.
"All the investigations reject a deliberate intention behind the incident and the hotel manager has accepted responsibility for this negligence," Irna quoted interior ministry official Hossein Zolfaghari as saying.
He said the poisonings had been the result of illegal pesticide use leaking through ventilation into the area of the hotel where the Saudis were staying.
The hotel manager and four others were taken in for questioning.
Nine pilgrims were still in hospital on Tuesday.
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