A Saudi woman who killed an Egyptian taxi driver and a passenger has reached a settlement The family of a Saudi woman charged with manslaughter after killing a 42-year-old taxi driver and an Azerbaijani student in a horrific road accident last week have reached a settlement of nearly LE350,000, reports Reem Leila. As a result, the charges brought against the Saudi have been dropped. The defendant, Sara Fahd Al-Khatifi, is not a princess as was originally reported but nevertheless belongs to a well-known family. Al-Khatifi is a student living in Cairo with her Egyptian mother and Saudi father. Al-Khatifi had been driving at breakneck speed when she collided with taxi driver Hassan Said Ahmed on Talaat Harb Street in the downtown area on 10 January. Ahmed and a 21-year-old Al-Azhar University student from Azerbaijan, Farhad Hasanov, were killed in the crash. Two other Azerbaijani colleagues of Hasanov were injured. One received only minor injuries; the other remains in hospital in serious condition. Following the incident, negotiations between the lawyers of the two families were held at the headquarters of the Press Syndicate after the victim's family refused to meet with the defendant's family in the Saudi Arabia Embassy. The defendant's family also refused to have representatives from the embassy visit the neighbourhood where the victim's family lives. The settlement money was made out to Ahmed's children, Dina, seven, two-year- old Ghada and 14-year-old Karim, who is disabled. The three children are currently under the guardianship of the victim's family. Ahmed's family has been receiving donations ever since their story appeared in the press and television shows. Ahmed's family had allegedly been under pressure by Saudi officials at the Saudi Embassy to settle the case in return for money especially after the case received much media attention. The defence alleges that the defendant was driving at manic speed and that blood tests following the accident contained a 13 per cent blood alcohol level. Al-Khatifi, a student at a private university in Cairo, arrived in court on Tuesday with eight lawyers and tight security for an appeals hearing. The South Cairo Court had rejected an initial appeal that Al-Khatifi be released from custody. Following the appeal's rejection, Al-Khatifi was kept in custody for a further few days for more questioning. At the beginning, Ahmed's family refused to negotiate with Al-Khatifi's family and instead requested that Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit step in to ensure that the case remains within the jurisdiction of an Egyptian court until a verdict was reached. "This Saudi woman must be responsible for what she has done," Manal El-Sayed, Ahmed's wife, said. "Why should my children pay the price for something a reckless girl committed? "We received several phone calls from Saudi officials abroad who at times threatened us and at other times tried to tempt us with money," El-Sayed claimed. "We accepted the money for the sake of my disabled boy whose medical treatment costs a fortune, and also to financially secure the future of my children since the deceased was our only supporter and I do not work," El-Sayed added. Ahmed's lawyer, Fouad Khaled, told the press that he will seek more financial compensation for his client and vowed not to abandon the case "until a fair verdict is reached." Khaled complained that Al-Khatifi had not been properly confined when she was in detention, alleging she was given permission to leave her prison cell and sleep in an interrogation room instead along with her brother. "The Saudi woman was later fined only LE10,000 and released," argued Khaled in reference to the initial ruling. Saudi Arabia follows a very strict interpretation of Islam under which people convicted of murder are executed. Beheadings are carried out with a sword in a public square. Citing the Saudi practices as comparison, Khaled said, "here in Egypt they want to compensate the family with money which is considered peanuts for them in return for their daughter's freedom. "If the same crime was committed in Saudi Arabia, the family of the accused would have paid millions instead of this trivial amount of money they are compensating the family with."
