Kuwait Times

Published Date: June 26, 2007

RIYADH: Eighteen members of Saudi Arabia's vice police have been cleared of involvement in the death of a man during a raid on his home, officials said yesterday. The officers from the powerful Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or the Muttawa, were under investigation over the death of Suleiman al-Kharisi in May. The officers "had no connection to the cause of death", said a statement from the Riyadh region principality.

Kharisi's home in the capital was stormed by the Muttawa after they suspected him of distributing alcohol, a substance which is illegal in the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom. The statement said a Muttawa informant who took part in the operation, but was not officially sanctioned to do so, was responsible for Kharisi's death and was being held before he could be charged. "The investigation found there were individuals who participated in the action... who were not members of the commission... One of them has been accused of causing events leading to the death of the man," it said.

The 5000-strong Muttawa, which enforces a strict Islamic code in the kingdom, have recently come under heavy public scrutiny for alleged heavy-handed tactics. The trial of four Muttawa officers over the death a man in their custody in the northeastern city of Tabuk was due to begin on Saturday, but was adjourned to an unknown date due to incomplete legal documents. The Muttawa have also faced investigation in the Makkah region after an Asian woman fell to her death from the fourth floor of a building that was stormed by religious police last month.

Media have reported growing frustration over the Muttawa's actions, with attacks on officers by members of the public and a decision by the kingdom's consultative body to block a recommendation to increase funding to the force. A landmark civil case against the Muttawa was adjourned on May 13 to July after none of its officers showed up in court, the woman plaintiff's lawyer said. The woman was seeking compensation after she and her daughter were allegedly wrongfully arrested in a shopping centre car park in 2004 for "not wearing decent clothing", her lawyer told AFP. Women in Saudi Arabia must be covered from head to toe when they go out in public. - AFP