In Saudi Arabia: 172 Government Employees Arrested in Corruption Cases

The Saudi Commission for Combating Corruption (Nazaha) announced the arrest of 172 suspects between mid-October and November this year. The commission stated in a press release that it conducted 6,061 monitoring rounds and investigated 512 individuals. The arrested suspects belong to various agencies, including the Ministries of Defense, Interior, National Guard, Foreign Affairs, Health, the General Presidency, and the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. The most significant crimes pertained to financial and administrative corruption, such as bribery, exploitation of influence, abuse of power, and forgery. Nazaha urged reporting any suspicions of financial or administrative corruption to protect public security and funds. The Saudi Cabinet approved a national strategy to combat corruption in 2007, one of the main elements of which was the establishment of the Nazaha Commission. Throughout this year, the commission has previously announced the apprehension of several corruption and bribery cases across different government agencies.