Saudis lean on Dutch to stop adultery execution film

Press, 15 April 1980, Page 9

Saudis lean on Dutch to stop adultery execution film

NZPA-Reuter The Hague Saudi Arabia has formally asked The Dutch Government to stop the screening of a British television film about the public executions of a Saudi Princess and her lover, a Dutch Government ! spokesman has said. The Saudi Ambassador in the Hague (Sheikh Ziyad Mohamed All Shawaf) made the request at a meeting with the Acting .Dutch Prime Minister (Mr Hans Wiegel), the spokesman said. Mr Wiegel, deputising for Andreas van Agt, who was on his way to Indonesia for an official visit, replied that the Dutch Government had no power to prevent the programme being shown but had telephoned the chairman of the Dutch Central Broadcasting Organisation to put forward the Saudi viewpoint. The N.O.S. chairman (Mr Erik Jurgens) said earlier that the organisation would need more convincing before it cancelled plans to screen the film on Wednesday night local time (Thursday N.Z. time).

The programme, which reconstructs the adulterous affair between Princess Misha and her lover, was denounced in Saudi Arabia as insulting the Islamic religion. Saudi officials have described the programme as sensation-seeking fiction and an insult to the Saudi royal family. The Dutch Transport Ministry State Secretary (Mrs Neelie Smit) said in a television interview that the Government would do everything it could to stop the film, “Death of a Princess,” from being shown. Her Ministry is responsible for aspects of broadcasting affairs. She was speaking from Riyadh, the Saudi capital, where informed sources said she was told by senior Saudi officials that, the Saudi Government would be extremely annoyed if the film were screened. The princess was shot by firing squad for adultery in 1977, and her lover, a commoner, was beheaded. American, West German,

Australian and New Zealand television organisations are also interested in showing the film. The Gulf oil states of Bahrain and Qatar have backed Saudi Arabia in condemning the film. The Gulf News Agency said that the Bahraini Information Minister (Mr Tariq Moayyad) had sent a telegram to his Saudi counterpart (Mr Mohammed Abdo Yamani) denouncing the film as an insult to the religion of Islam and an attack on the values and traditions of Saudi Arabia.

Yesterday the Saudi newspaper, “Al Jezira” said the kingdom, the world’s biggest oil exporter, was able to wage war with several weapons to fight “the aggression directed at it by the British media in the name of freedom and the British people.” The Qatari newspaper, “Al Raya” said it was sure the British Government could have stopped the film being shown if it had wished but it had not done so because

the British media, both government and private, were totally controlled by Zionists.

In London, the “Sunday Telegraph” has said that Britain’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (Mr James Craig) had received a "frigid” reception when he returned to Jeddah to try to cool Saudi Arabian fury over the film.

The “Sunday Telegraph" said that despite the personal expressions of regret by the British Foreign Secretary (Lord Carrington) the Saudi Government was in no mood to soften its strong criticism of the British attitude.

When Mr Craig arrived in Jeddah on Thursday for an urgent meeting with Prince Saud, the country’s Foreign Minister and a member of the Saudi royal family, he' was given what was described as “a Very icy reception.” The Prince made clear, both as a member of the Saudi Government and the royal family, his “extreme displeasure” over the film, the paper said. ... -—- ~