Posted on 08/12/2007 5:22:33 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Man reported dead of fright in Saudi vice police custody
AFP
August 12, 2007
RIYADH -- A Bangladeshi man died of fright after being arrested by Saudi Arabia's controversial religious police for washing a car instead of praying, a local newspaper reported Sunday.
The unnamed man died last week in the holy city of Medina after being detained by members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Al Jazirah reported.
The Arabic daily said the man "convulsed in fear after he was arrested, leading to a drop in his blood pressure, and causing his death."
The man was arrested by members of the commission, commonly known as the Muttawa, for washing a car during a time of day when he should have been at prayer, the paper said.
The Muttawa enforce a strict Islamic moral code in the ultra-conservative kingdom, and are increasingly being criticized by the public for perceived abuses.
The Muttawa beat a group of Iraqi pilgrims holding British and US citizenship in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, a Saudi Shiite news Web site said August 6.
The Shiite news Web site rasid.net said the Muttawa beat the pilgrims with sticks after accusing them of being "infidels" as they circled the holy Kaaba stone at the Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site.
The head of the Muttawa, Ibrahim Al Ghaith, said the Bangladeshi man "fainted" while being transported in a vehicle, and that doctors found no signs of "assault or torture" on his body, Al Watan newspaper reported.
Three commission members and policeman who witnessed the incident were questioned before being completely exonerated, it added.
Complaints about excesses attributed to the 5,000-strong force have become increasingly common in the local press in recent months.
The English-language daily Arab News reported last week that a Nigerian convert to Islam was jailed in Riyadh after helping a sick, 63-year-old woman, and was then accused by the religious police of immoral behavior.
Earlier this month, a court acquitted three members of the Muttawa and a policeman over the death of a man in their custody in the northwestern city of Tabuk. He, too, had been accused of associating with a woman who was not a relative.
The interior ministry issued a decree in May 2006 that aimed to rein in the Muttawa by requiring them not to interrogate detained suspects, as they had previously done, but to hand them over to the regular police, instead.
However, interior minister Prince Nayef Bin Abdel Aziz last month defended the Muttawa, accusing journalists of exaggerating recent abuse allegations.
I'm sure the blunt force trauma resulting from his interaction with the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice had nothing to do with it...
< /environut>
Too many panties on his head?
I’m surprised he didn’t just Shiite his pants.
Bwah...good one.
He decided to die humanly ... instead of facing the “stoning” he would face for washing his car in lieu of praying.
Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of ViceYou think our leftist environmentalists don't want to set up one of these? They might call it something a little different, and they might go after different "crimes", but they definitely want to define a code of leftist virtue in the prevention of anti-leftist vice. And once they get a Hitlery for President, they just might get their chance.
They set out to tolerate the INTOLERABLE.
Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to wash the car.
Mussolini would be proud of these IslamoFascisti.
I’d walk a mile for a Camel.
“The man was arrested by members of the commission, commonly known as the Muttawa, for washing a car during a time of day when he should have been at prayer, the paper said.”
“Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” —Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus
The Ma Fra car wash in Italy would be a weapon of mass destruction to the Saudis.
Not to argue with yr underlying point, but do you think it was “his” car? I suspect he was an employee of a Saudi national, washing the car of his boss.
What????.......
Did your girlfriend leave you?
The arresting officers should be brought up on charges for arresting during a time they should have been in prayers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.