The case of the death of Salman Al-Huraisi, allegedly beaten to death by members of the Saudi Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (aka, the religious police) is indeed a high-profile one. But it does not raise public sympathy as did the case of ‘Qatif Girl’. Al-Huraisi was caught up in a raid on his family’s home where alcohol was being manufactured, according to various reports. For many Saudis, that’s provocation enough for whatever happened to him.
His family—and now human rights activists—disagree, stating that over-reaction and over-reach by the religious police led to Al-Huraisi’s death. They have appealed a lower court’s verdict to the Saudi Court of Cassation, seeking to have that verdict overturned and members of the Commission found guilty of homicide.
Raid Qusti covers the story for Arab News in an article worth reading.
Huraisi Case Goes to Appeal; Rights Advocate Teams Up With Lawyer
Raid Qusti, Arab NewsRIYADH, 29 December 2007 — The high-profile case of Salman Al-Huraisi, a 28-year-old Saudi hotel security guard who died as a result of alleged beatings by two members of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, has been transferred to the Cassation Court, the Kingdom’s court of appeals. A ruling is expected within a month.
Raif Badwi, a human rights advocate, has teamed up with the family’s attorney, Yahya Al-Huraisi, to appeal the lower court’s decision on Nov. 28 dropping all charges against two defendants in the murder case — both of them Commission members.
Badwi is expected to highlight the case from a human rights perspective and underscore the conclusion made by the General Investigation and Prosecution Authority (GIPA), the Kingdom’s equivalent of a district attorney’s office, which had declared the two agents culpable for Al-Huraisi’s death.
“The ruling (by the lower court) implies what I refer to as a ‘license to kill’,†Badwi told Arab News. “If the Cassation Court does not overturn the lower court’s decision and there is no intervention from higher authorities, this basically means that these people can enter anyone’s house in the name of religion, humiliate them physically and mentally, take them to a station and even kill someone and get away with it.â€
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December:29:2007 - 18:04
There are too many items in this case that run afoul with what good policing and judiciary should be. I am going to quote a few from the article.
Three judges in a Riyadh court dropped the charges against the two commission members last month after making the members swore under oath that they had not taken part in the raid or beat the deceased. The defendants had retracted confessions made during an initial hearing.
So all it takes in our courts now is a statement of the accused that they did not do it. Would this type of defense be offered to the average citizen?
The Commission members immediately destroyed the bottles of alcohol seized from the house instead of treating them as evidence of criminal activity.
Great police from our vice squad Mutawa’een. Collecting evidence is really not necessary for them, since all the court needs is their word about the guilt of the accused.
There are too many other issues here like the dismissal of autopsy report, eyewitness accounts and the original statement by the defendants . It seems this train was heading to dismissal of the charges no matter what the evidence was.
There is a few bright spots
“I am not going to drop this case, even if I am going to be jailed or killed for it,†Badwi said.
I hope Mr. Badwi gets protection and becomes another civil rights hero for Saudi’s like Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem. Also, the order of the Ministry of Interior that the commission can not arrest or detain suspects.