Saudi Arabia jails 21 after deadly floods

A Saudi court has jailed 21 people, including at least one government official, after houses were built on flood-prone land, leading to more than 100 deaths by drowning, local media reported on Thursday. The rulings came nearly a year after two men were jailed in one of the first convictions in a graft crackdown the government launched following the floods that hit Jeddah in 2009 and 2011.
Arab News daily reported that a senior municipal official was sentenced to five years in prison and fined 700,000 riyals ($186,700) for giving permission for people to buy and build houses in areas hit by the floods. Houses were built on low-lying land and the situation was made worse by the absence of a city-wide drainage system. The floods spread after just a few hours of torrential downpour in an arid region where months often go by without any rain at all.