Another 45 people have been given jail sentences after being convicted of contributing to floods that killed 120 people in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 2009.
Their sentences total 118 ½ years, with a total SR14.17 million in fines, although the individual jail terms had not yet been handed to the convicted on Sunday, Arab News reported.
A further 78 people were acquitted.
The sentences follow at least 23 that had already been issued.
In May, last year, 21 people, including at least one government official, were jailed for allowing houses to be built on flood-prone land. Arab News reported at the time that a senior municipal official was sentenced to five years in prison and fined SR700,000 for giving permission for people to buy and build houses in areas hit by the floods.
A year earlier, two men were jailed in one of the first convictions in a graft crackdown the government launched following the floods.
The most recently sentenced defendants included high-ranking officials in service departments, academics, engineers, businessmen and foreign workers. They faced charges including bribery, forgery, misuse of official authority, misuse of public money, engaging in illegal business activities and money laundering.
The high casualty rate was blamed on houses being 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.
The disaster also led to 14 emergency projects to help the city better cope with future downpours or flooding.
The projects, which were said to have been completed in record time, included the construction of five dams, expansion of the existing canals in the northern, southern and eastern parts of Jeddah and the construction of a new canal along King Abdulaziz International Airport to contain the floods in the city.
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