Charged Penn State ex-president's request for Saudi trip denied

It looks like former Penn State President Graham B. Spanier won't be going to Saudi Arabia this fall after all.

Commonwealth Court denied Spanier's request to travel there to meet with higher education officials, noting the lack of an extradition treaty with Saudi Arabia that would make it impossible to force him back.

Spanier, who is awaiting trial on perjury and conspiracy charges connected to the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, has been barred from leaving the country without approval of the court and the attorney general since August 2013.

The former university president who lost his job in the aftermath of the scandal had asked the court earlier this month to make the trip to Saudi Arabia. The court had granted his request for international travel several times in the past, including a trip to Saudi Arabia last year.

Spanier, a sociologist, has continued to live in State College and remains a tenured member of the Penn State faculty as the court case filed against him filed in 2012 continues to drag on. No court date has been set.

The former Penn State leader has been accused of conspiring with other administrators to cover up Sandusky's crimes to preserve Penn State's reputation. He resigned in November 2011 after Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach, was indicted for abusing young boys. Sandusky is in jail, serving at least 30 years.