Saudi Religious Police Trial Postponed

By DONNA ABU-NASR

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – A judge on Saturday postponed the trial of three members of Saudi Arabia’s religious police for their alleged involvement in the death of a man arrested after being seen with a woman who was not his relative.

The judge did not set a new date for the trial, the first of its kind in this conservative nation, but assured the man’s family the postponement was just procedural, according to a family representative.

Ahmed al-Bulaiwi, a retired border patrol guard in his early 50s, died in custody shortly after his June 1 arrest by religious police in the northern city of Tabuk.

"He went into custody a healthy man. He got out in a funeral procession," his cousin, Audah al-Bulaiwi, who is representing the family in court, told The Associated Press by phone from Tabuk.

The police became suspicious after they observed the woman getting into his car near an amusement park, according to accounts published by the local media. Under the kingdom’s rules, a woman cannot drive, and can only go out in public with her father, brother, son or husband.

An investigation showed that al-Bulaiwi, who supplemented his pension by working as a driver, was asked by the family of the woman, who was in her 50s, to drive her home, according to press reports.

Al-Bulaiwi’s cousin said the trial was postponed because the documents he presented to the judge were incomplete. While Saudis are allowed to appoint lawyers, many choose to send a family representative instead.

A statement by the governorate of Tabuk this week did not say how long the trial would last, what the charges against the men were or what punishment they could face if found guilty.

Still, the case was seen as a major setback for the Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, a feared government body that employs the religious police. It has long been resented for intimidating people and meddling into the most minute aspects of their lives.

The religious police, informally known as the muttawa, patrol public places, including malls, to ensure that women are covered in the mandatory black abaya, or cloak, that the sexes do not mix in public, that shops close five times a day for prayers and that the men go to the mosque and worship.

The muttawa don’t wear uniforms, but are recognizable by their long beards and their robes, shorter than the ones normally worn by Saudi men.

The Tabuk governorate said al-Bulaiwi died as a result of a severe drop in blood pressure and failure of the respiratory system.

While many Saudis say they support the idea of having the commission because its mandate is based on several verses in the Quran, Islam’s holy book, they also say its members exploit their broad mandate to interfere in people’s lives.

"It’s the governmental body that violates human rights the most," said Abdul-Rahman al-Lahem, a human rights activist and lawyer. "The commission members say they are acting in the name of religion, a claim that has given them immunity against any criticism."

Another investigation is under way into a second fatal incident, in which Saudi national Sulaiman al-Huraisi died last month while in custody of the religious police who had raided his house in Riyadh because they suspected he had alcohol on the premises. Liquor is illegal in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Lahem said witnesses reported that the muttawa beat al-Huraisi "severely" and that he was bleeding heavily when he was taken into their custody.

The deaths have sparked a public outcry against the religious police, with almost daily coverage in the kingdom’s government-guided papers and commentaries urging the government to reform the commission.

"This campaign will end the sacredness surrounding the commission and will pave the way for its reform," said al-Lahem.

In 2002, a wave of anti-commission writings was triggered by eyewitness accounts suggesting the muttawa caused several deaths by stopping a group of schoolgirls from fleeing a school fire because they were not covered in the mandatory black cloaks.

A government investigation disputed the witnesses’ accounts and found that the 15 girls who perished were trampled to death on the school’s stairs. The criticism died down after the investigation.