Saudi religious police on trial over man's death

France Press 24 June, 2007

RIYADH, June 23 (AFP)

Four members of Saudi Arabia's powerful religious police are to stand trial yesterday over the death of a man while in their custody, a newspaper reported.

The officers from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice or the Muttawa are accused of responsibility for the death of Ahmed Al Bulawi in May, the English-language Saudi Gazette reported.

Bulawi, 50, died while being held for questioning in one of the Muttawa's offices in the northeastern city of Tabuk for allegedly associating with a woman who was not a relative.

A senior member of the 5000-strong Muttawa, which enforces a strict Islamic code in the ultra-conservative kingdom, later told local media that Bulawi had not broken any of Saudi Arabia's segregation laws.

The Muttawa have also faced investigation in the Mecca region after an Asian woman fell to her death from the fourth floor of a building that was stormed by religious police last month.

Local media have reported growing widespread frustration over the Muttawa's actions, shown by attacks on its officers by members of the public on the rise and a recent decision by the kingdom's consultative body to block a recommendation to increase government funding to the Muttawa.

The first civil court case against the Muttawa was adjourned on May 13 to July after none of its officers showed up at the opening hearing, the woman plaintiff's lawyer said.

The Muttawa also reportedly once arrested more than 200 workers from Bangladesh and Myanmar as they celebrated St Valentine's Day outside the holy city of Mecca, where the traditional event for lovers is banned by fatwa or Muslim edict.

The interior ministry issued a May 2006 decree aimed at reining in the Muttawa by requiring them not to interrogate detained suspects but to hand them over to the regular police instead.

But Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said on Wednesday he believed the Muttawa should play a wider role in the ultra-conservative society.

"The role of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is not confined to fighting depravity, but must spread to cover other matters," state news agency SPA quoted Prince Nayef as saying.