Iranian Deputy FM for Consular, Parliamentary and Expatriates Affairs Hassan Ghashghavi told Mehr News correspondent that the case on the sexual abuse of two teenage Iranian pilgrims by Saudi officers at Jeddah airport is still in the hearing process and no high court has yet issued any verdict.
“Our duty is to defend the rights of those two teenagers and by selecting international Iranian lawyers we have tried to make sure no violation of rights would occur in the next hearing sessions. We held a meeting with a number of lawyers at the Iranian Consulate in Jeddah two or three weeks ago and are following up on this case,” said Ghasghghavi.
While performing body search on passengers at the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, Saudi officers reportedly took two Iranian teenagers, aged 14 and 15, away, citing suspicion. The officers, who had sounded off the alarm at the gate, subjected the teenagers to indecent acts.
Following the incident, Iran summoned the Saudi chargé d’affaires and submitted a note of complaint to the Saudi government.
To another question on the recent crane collapse in Mecca which killed nearly 110 people and injured about 400 more among which were 11 Iranian pilgrims deceased and 32 injured, and whether Iran has taken any measures to follow up on this incident Ghashghavi said, “our top priority at the moment is to perform Hajj rituals and assure the safe return of all pilgrims to Iran. We will then take an appropriate decision on how to follow up on this incident."
A construction crane collapsed on Hajj pilgrims in the Grand Mosque of Mecca on 11 September. The incident which killed more than 100 people and injured 238 others, happened at a time when hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims are pouring into the holy city to perform the annual Hajj pilgrimage. The hajj started on September 21.
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