Wife ready to be flogged

Press, 1 April 1980, Page 9

Wife ready to be flogged

NZPA London An English surgeon’s wife.Mrs Penelope Arnot, is said; to be willing to undergo a public flogging to save her husband from jail. It was disclosed on Friday that British Foreign Office officials were trying to save Mrs Arnot from a Jeddah court's sentence of 80 lashes for serving alcohol at a party. Mrs Arnot, who is 32, -and her husband Richard, who is 39, were sentenced to be flogged with a cane and MrArnot to a further seven months in jail in Saudi Arabia. The sentence must be confirmed by the governor of Mecca. The sentence followed a drinks party at the Arnots’ fifth-floor rented flat last May. An English nurse. Helen Smith, aged 23, and her Dutch boyfriend fell to their deaths from a balcony. Mrs Arnot was released last September and her husband freed later. At the week-end, still in Jeddah, Mrs Arnot was reported to have told relatives she would “take the flogging” if it meant her husband did not have to go back to jail. Meanwhile, Miss Smith’s father, Ronald Smith, a former policeman, has travelled to Saudi Arabia to investigate the circumstances of his daughter’s death. Mr Smith, who says- the injuries suffered by his daughter seemed to him unrelated to a fall, has charged a London lawyer with pursuing the investigation.