It’s been a while since there’s been any reported movement on the top-to-bottom reform of the Saudi legal system. According to this piece run by Saudi Gazette/Okaz, the issue isn’t moribund, just slow. A new structure for the courts is being drawn up, with the remit of the various courts being defined. Among these courts will be those with particular focus on civil status law, labor law, commercial law, and catch-all general courts. The formations look do-able, but the biggest step, reform and codification of the laws themselves, remains to be done.
Draft plans for new courts outline jurisdictions
ADNAN AL-SHABRAWIJEDDAH: The King Abdullah project for the development of the judiciary continues apace with the Ministry of Justice and other related bodies drawing up rules of jurisdiction for new courts planned to be set up and the procedures for their operation.
The new courts include general courts, civil status courts, workers courts, commercial courts, district courts and traffic circuits attached to general courts. The jurisdictions of each court in judicial articles are currently being studied and are expected to be announced upon approval.
Sources told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that the draft for the organization of new court work procedures tasks general courts with looking at all law suits, legal cases, evidence, and issues under their judgment along with all issues that fall outside the jurisdiction of other courts, notaries public and the Board of Grievances. Also under their jurisdiction in the draft are real estate suits including ownership disputes or related affairs, damage complaints from realtors or beneficiaries, and other issues such as eviction, rent payment and joint investments. Their jurisdiction further covers traffic accident complaints and motor offenses stated in the traffic law.
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In 2009, there were a series of earthquakes in northwestern Saudi Arabia. In fact, there have been 40,000 of them since, all centered around the Al-Ais area of the Harrat Lunayyir, an ancient lava bed. After Friday’s devastating earthquake in Japan, Saudi geologists want to reassure the populace that they’re on top of the issue, though they cannot predict any pending events at the moment. This Arab News article talks about the network of monitoring stations around the Kingdom. It also talks about the somewhat unusual weather affecting the country at the moment, with heavier rains than normal. The cause, the meteorologists say, is knock-on effects of La Niña, a lowering of ocean temperatures in the eastern-central Pacific Ocean, just about as far away from Saudi Arabia as it’s possible to get. It is indeed an interrelated world.
We’re capable of monitoring any seismic activity: Saudi scientists
GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN | ARAB NEWSRIYADH: Senior Saudi scientists said here on Saturday that the Kingdom is capable of monitoring any seismic activity with its advance network of earthquake monitoring stations, but expressed concerns following reports of a ferocious earthquake that rocked Japan on Friday killing hundreds of people so far.
“It is too early to talk about the possibility of any future seismic activity in the Arabian Peninsula,” said Khaled Abdulaziz Al-Eissa of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST).
“The Saudi Arabian Digital Seismic Network (SANDSN), operated by the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS), is quite capable of monitoring any seismic activity,” he added.
The network helps to improve seismic hazard parameters using earthquake location and magnitude calibration of high quality data. SANDSN consists of more than 38 seismic stations. All countries, including the Kingdom, rely on “early warnings about natural calamities as per international conventions,” he added.
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Whether it was the police presence, the distractions of a pleasant day, or no burning desire to take to the streets, the ‘Day of Rage’ protest for Saudi Arabia, called for by Facebook activists, didn’t turn out to be much. As this Arab News report makes clear, though, people were nervous. The streets were only lightly populated, with crowds deciding that it was wiser to stay at home.
The article carries a denial from the Ministry of Interior that demonstrator in Qatif had been fired upon on Thursday. The streets of Qatif were largely empty today, however.
The paper notes that there were cars carrying flags and pictures of the king seen on the streets of Jeddah, supporting the current government. Similarly, there was also a pro-government Facebook presence. Strong anti-protest statements from the government and religious leaders seems to have played a role in making the protest a non-event.
‘Day of Rage’ a damp squib
MUHAMMAD AL-SULAIMI, SIRAJ WAHAB & MD. RASOOLDEENRIYADH/JEDDAH/DAMMAM: It was a normal Friday yesterday across the Kingdom despite worries that the calls on Internet social sites for a “Day of Rage” might be heeded.
“There was nothing of the sort,” security spokesman of the Interior Ministry Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki told Arab News four hours after the Friday prayers. There were no demonstrations anywhere in the Kingdom, he said.
People were wary after reports of the incidents that marred protests in Qatif on Thursday, leaving three people injured.
But Riyadh, Jeddah and other cities were quiet for a Friday that saw pleasant weather, although there was a strong police presence. In both Riyadh and Jeddah, police helicopters were briefly in evidence.
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UPDATE: The UK’s The Guardian runs a piece on the day after the day of rage. The writer claims, with some substance, that the demonstrations were deflated by (among other things) the insertion of a strong Islamist element, propagated by Sa’ad Al-Faqih’s London-based efforts to establish a new Caliphate and global Islamic State. Once he co-opted the movement and tried to rename it ‘Hunain‘, the idea of demonstrating became toxic and utterly antithetical to the reforms that most sought. Worth reading.
Saudi Arabia’s day of little rage
Saudis ignored calls for protests on Friday because of tight security and fears about manipulation by extremists
Eman Al NafjanFriday was Saudi Arabia’s “day of rage”, planned for and anticipated for weeks. But, in the event, there wasn’t even a grumble – unless you count the ongoing protests in the eastern province which had been going on for a week.
The protests in the east, where the Saudi Shia minority is concentrated, were mostly to call for the release of political prisoners. However, across the country there was silence. Many were expecting it to be so, but some wonder why.
Two main factors played a role in this silence. The first was the government’s preparation, with the interior ministry’s warning and the senior clerics’ religious decree prohibiting demonstrations and petitions.
… The second and more important factor discouraging protests was a huge question mark regarding who was calling for them. What started on a Facebook page as a call for the creation of a civil society with a list of demands including a constitutional monarchy and a call for public freedoms and respect for human rights eventually turned into a page where sectarianism was openly practised and Islamists were praised.
The grassroots movement was gradually taken over and given a Jihadi name: Hunain, recalling a famous battle in the early history of Islam. Sa’ad al-Faqih and other anti-monarchy people took over. On his channel, Islah TV, he assigned locations and gave instructions on how to conduct a protest, with tips ranging from what to wear to what to do if tear gas gets in your eyes. He hijacked the grassroots movement for reforms into an outright call for an end to the monarchy and the creation of a new Islamist state – a cause similar to what Bin Laden and al-Qaida were calling for. These types of calls no longer have support within Saudi Arabia.
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Now that a few days have passed since the Congressional hearing held by Rep. Peter King, there’s a bit more analysis—or what passes for it—appearing. The Washington Post asks a select few (no, we don’t know the basis of selection) what they think:
American Muslim groups react to views presented
in controversial hearing
Michelle BoorsteinStanding before a throng of cameras after his high-profile hearing on Muslim radicalization, Rep. Peter T, King (R-N.Y.) once again attacked major Muslim American organizations and their leaders, whom King described as soft on extremism.
Asked to identify better leaders, the Long Island Republican pointed to the wavy-haired man beside him, Arizona physician Zuhdi Jasser. Jasser, the head of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, had just been his star witness at Thursday’s hearing.
“To me, a group like Dr. Jasser’s would be ideal,” King said, calling the forum “the most compatible” with American values.
It was a remarkable moment in the spotlight for an organization that until a few years ago had an annual budget of less than $20,000 and a few volunteers.
If King’s hearing was about anything, it was about trying to empower a different group of Muslim leaders, people King and other conservatives view as more patriotic, more cooperative and more focused on rooting out terrorists, rather than on Islamophobia.
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The Libertarian/Conservative blog aggregator Pajamasmedia takes a harsher look. Many of the writers there verge on Islamophobia and dislike of Arabs, mostly over the issue of Israel, but also on civil rights. Here, the writer sees the hand of the Muslim Brotherhood pulling the strings of most of America’s Islamic organizations. The writer goes way over the top when he starts talking about jihad.
Addressing Islam: The Muslim Brotherhood and Democracy
N.M. GuarigliaThere is one silver lining to the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt: it will eventually force the United States to adopt an international policy on Islam itself. Given his Cairo speech in 2009, littered with historical inaccuracies and undue politically correct praise of Islam, we shouldn’t expect President Obama to take upon himself this task. Perhaps another statesman will. But that it must be done — alas, ten years after 9/11 — is no longer a matter of debate.
The national discourse is petty. Policymakers talk as though the problem were merely 500 terrorists cave-hopping around Waziristan. This is not so. The issue is societal. Europe is on the precipice of cultural implosion. The issue is also imminent. The entire Persian Gulf and Arab Levant is up for grabs. Atomic bombs are in question. Radical Islamists have entrenched themselves in the West’s political mainstream — even into the U.S. government. For decades, the Muslim Brotherhood has had more power within the United States than in Egypt.
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As The New York Times makes clear in its reporting, there was a strong partisan divide separating Republican and Democratic congressmen in the hearings on radicalization in the American Muslim community. Some representatives were more temperate than others, but the parties were clearly differentiated by their general take on the issue. Republicans tended to see dangers, often hidden dangers; Democrats saw the potential for demonizing a group on the basis of its religion and thought the hearings, by their very existence, brought back bad memories of government intrusion into areas that should be left to individuals.
Domestic Terrorism Hearing Opens With Contrasting Views
on Dangers
SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and LAURIE GOODSTEINWASHINGTON — A Congressional hearing on Thursday addressing homegrown Islamic terrorism offered divergent portraits of Muslims in America: one as law-abiding people who are unfairly made targets, the other as a community ignoring radicalization among its own and failing to confront what one witness called “this cancer that’s within.”
Attacked by critics as a revival of McCarthyism, and lauded by supporters as a courageous stand against political correctness, the hearing — four hours of sometimes emotional testimony — revealed a deep partisan split in lawmakers’ approach to terror investigations and their views on the role of mosques in America.
Republicans drilled down with questions about whether Muslims cooperate with law enforcement, and singled out a Washington-based advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, casting it as an ally of terrorists. Representative Peter T. King, a Long Island Republican and the Homeland Security Committee chairman who convened the session, declared it a “discredited group,” an assertion the organization’s executive director, Nihad Awad, dismissed as “political theater.”
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The Washington Post saw the hearings more as political theater than a useful process of developing information. They raised more questions than they answered, The Post suggested, and were less than fully helpful in that no representative of major Islamic organizations nor national law enforcement bodies took part.
Rep. Peter King’s Muslim hearing: Plenty of drama, less substance
Given yesterday’s congressional hearings about radical Islam, I find this Arab News story about the Al-Haramain Foundation particularly interesting. Al-Haramain is now in court, asking that the US government be required to disclose to it the allegations against it that led to its being classified as a sponsor of terrorism. Because of those charges, Al-Haramain was forced to close. The charges, however, have never been challenged in court; they exist only as allegations made by the government. If Al-Haramain can show that the charges were groundless or improper, it likely will file civil suit against the government to seek recompense for its lost money, if not its lost potential moneys. At the very least, it is seeking to clear its name against what it considers to have been a smear campaign undertaken in the period following 9/11.
Al-Haramain charity awaiting appeal verdict in US court
GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN | ARAB NEWSRIYADH: Attorneys representing the defunct Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation criticized the US government for designating the Saudi-based charity as a “global terrorist organization” without spelling out the charges against it in 2004.
Attorney David Cole made this argument before a US court during a hearing on Wednesday about the US government’s seizure of assets belonging to the US chapter of Al-Haramain that led to a protracted legal battle.
The case is being heard by a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in the state of Oregon. Attorneys for the charity asked the court to give their client another chance to defend itself.
The US Treasury Department labeled Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation of Oregon as having ties to terrorist groups and having direct links with Osama Bin Laden. The charity has been in court for years trying to clear its name from the terror list.
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I have to say that the US government’s success rate in this kind of trial has not been very good. When it has gone for broad, categorical charges, it has tended to lose in court, with most charges being thrown out or juries acquitting defendants so charged. The government has had better luck with cases in which there is direct evidence, such as the arrests of people engaged in specific acts, not generalized, chaotic actions. I suspect that the government is not going to prevail in this case.
As I write this, it’s still morning in Saudi Arabia. Demonstrations have been called for today. Demonstrations in the Muslim world generally take place following noon prayers on Friday, so I anticipate that the ‘Day of Rage’ which has been called for is not yet taking place. I don’t expect that much will be taking place.
While a wave of dissent is sweeping the Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, the situation in the Kingdom (excepting the Eastern Province, about which see below) is markedly different than those in Tunisia or Egypt. The dissent is driven by conditions that are truly pan-Arab: unemployment, deficient education, few prospects for young people who comprise the majority of the various countries’ populations. Those conditions pertain in Saudi Arabia as well, but other elements, such as truly repressive government with thugs wearing police uniforms, widespread, bone-breaking poverty, the inability to see reform without revolution, do not. That, I believe, makes the difference.
I think, too, that the efforts to use Facebook to gin up support for mass demonstrations has fizzled. To date, there are only some 32,000 people who have signed on. Out of a youth population close to 10 million, this is a pretty insignificant sign of support. Perhaps there are supporters who choose not to sign up. That’s certainly possible, but it’s impossible to guess just how many that might be. Nor does it help to distinguish between those who actively support the platform of the demonstrators from those who only think they might have a point or two.
As could be expected, Saudi media is downplaying the potential for radical, violent action. I see this as not much more than a counterweight to extravagant claims that the House of Saud is under threat of being overthrown. Oil prices are surging because of fear that Saudi oil production could be compromised by unrest. While there’s a certain amount of prudence that requires keeping an eye on things, I think there’s also a certain amount of venality in the oil markets, hoping to jack up prices to make a fortune in the short run. Fear is a good stimulant when it comes to pricing commodities.
Arab News has a couple of articles seeking to minimize the story:
It’s business as usual, but rumors worry expats
ARAB NEWSJEDDAH/QATIF: There were conflicting sentiments during the day on Thursday, as foreign journalists chased reports of impending protests which on investigation appeared to be a nonevent, while numbers of nervous expatriates wanted to know what was going on.
The confusion followed claims of a so-called “Day of Rage” protests on social media websites, which was then supposedly canceled by some of the sites but not by others. In the event, in the Eastern Province, foreign correspondents dispatched to cover the event said there was nothing much to report. The story was the same elsewhere. Normality reigned.Families were making purchases in shops and malls and there was normal traffic flow on city streets. Despite the normality, however, some expatriates, especially Westerners, did have apprehensions. Arab News was inundated with calls about demonstrations rumored to take place Friday. Several embassies also confirmed their nationals have called them with the same concerns. Residents were reportedly sending each other e-mails and text messages, claiming — erroneously — there would be a curfew on Friday.
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No threat seen to stability of Kingdom
ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: A number of ambassadors in Riyadh have challenged reports of instability in the Kingdom.
Speaking to Delhi-based daily, Business Standard, India’s Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad said Indian business executives should have “no apprehensions” about the Kingdom. “Indian investors can participate in Saudi Arabian projects with complete confidence and satisfaction that they will be welcomed by the business community,” he said. The disturbances happening in other Arab states had not impacted on Saudi Arabia, he said.
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Demonstrations in the Eastern Province, calling for the release from jail of Shi’ite activists, should not be conflated with the ‘Day of Rage’ movement, though Western media is certainly confusing them. Protests in Qatif and other cities are both old news—the Shi’a populations continue to be held in second-class citizenship, even if their disadvantages have been slightly lessened over the past handful of years—and new—arrests of Shi’a activists calling for reforms. I don’t doubt that events in N. Africa and Egypt have helped solidify Shi’a resolve to take to the streets, but they have issues entirely different from the ‘Day of Rage’ people, as far as I can tell. In none of the ‘Day of Rage’ propaganda do I see a word about raising the Saudi Shi’a population to equality with the Sunnis. Reform that does not include this is not, in my opinion, a particularly savory thrust of reform. Is it ‘reform for me, but not for thee’? Today’s demonstrators might want to clarify that point. Given typical Sunni attitudes toward the Shi’a, I’m not sure the question ever crossed their minds.
I may be proved wrong by events, but I sincerely doubt that today will see much of anything happening in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps a few hundred people will take to the streets in Jeddah, Riyadh, or Dammam. They will be chased away by police, with some maybe being arrested. There will be some cheerleading from the social media sidelines. The government will continue its reform projects, conceivably at a somewhat quicker pace. Talking heads in the media, mostly outside the region, will ponder the implications, inflate the importance, and try to keep oil prices high. And of course, a handful of clerics will condemn whatever the level of protest as sin. In other words, I don’t expect much beyond the norm.
Various media wire services are reporting that demonstrations held in Qatif, seeking the release of Shi’ite prisoners from jail, were met by a strong police presence. The police are reported to have used ‘flash-bang’ grenades and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd of around 200 demonstrators.
The Wall St. Journal:
Saudi Police Fire Rubber Bullets at Protest
SUMMER SAIDRIYADH–Saudi police fired rubber bullets Thursday to disperse at least 200 Shiite protesters in Qatif, a town in the oil-rich Eastern Province, local human rights activists said.
At least three people were injured and are currently being treated at Qatif’s hospital, the activists said.
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The Associated Press:
Saudi police open fire during protest
SARAH EL DEEB Associated PressCAIRO (AP) — Saudi police opened fire Thursday to disperse a protest in the section where minority Shiites live, leaving at least one man injured, as the government toughened its efforts to prevent a wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world from reaching the kingdom.
The rare violence raised concern about a crackdown ahead of planned protests after Friday prayers in different cities throughout the oil-rich kingdom. Violence there could reverberate through the world’s markets because of the importance of Saudi oil exports.
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Reuters:
Saudi protest dispersed by police, shots heard
Ulf Laessing and Cynthia JohnstonRIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi police used force to disperse a demonstration by minority Shi’ites on Thursday, injuring up to four people on the eve of a day of protests called for on social media, witnesses and activists said.
Shots were heard near a protest by around 200 Shi’ites in the town of Qatif in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, home to some of the world’s largest oil fields and a large Shi’ite minority.
The clampdown was a sign that the Saudi government was serious about enforcing a ban on protests called for Friday by Internet activists emboldened by protests that toppled the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia before spreading to the Gulf.
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The hearings held by the House Committee on Homeland Security, looking into radicalization in American Islamic communities and those communities response to it, ran a bit over three hours. In large part, it was political theater, but that does not diminish the importance of the topic. Whether the theater actually helps attain the stated goal, is another matter.
The participants represented not so much a cross-section of American Muslims as a hand-picked assortment of people who deal with extremism in different ways, through different channels of history. Two talked about their family members who had been sucked into extremism: Abdirizak Bihi, a Somali-American whose nephew was killed in Somalia after having been radicalized in the US and Marvin Bledsoe, a Black American whose son became radicalized in Yemen, returned to the US where he attacked a military recruiting station killing a soldier and wounded another. (Bledsoe was to have stood trial in February, but I cannot find any reports on that. I do find stories that report he had pled guilty in 2009, but none giving disposition of that plea.)
Abdirizak Bihi stated that when he went to Muslim leaders at his local mosque to express his concern about his nephew, he was essentially told to shut up and warned that cooperating with authorities would be to act against Muslims. Bledsoe said that his son converted to Islam while in university and became radicalized, though not necessarily through the local mosque.
Zuhdi Jasser, a US Navy veteran, physician, and founder of the American Islamic Forum claimed that the Islamic community was not doing enough in terms of cooperation with authorities. He noted that in 220 terror arrests over the last several years, 180 suspects were Muslims.
Los Angeles County Sheriff, Lee Baca, said that the tight focus on Islam was wrong. He gave details of how his Sheriffs Department worked productively and effectively with the Muslim community. He took strong exception to allegations that CAIR was a terrorist front organization, saying that if the FBI had evidence of this, then they should act against the organization. CAIR did become somewhat of a punching bag during the hearings, with allegations flying around about it, but no proof of anything beyond vague references to FBI reports. Now, CAIR is not my favorite organization. I think it has a tendency to go into ‘victim mode’ whenever a Muslim finds himself in legal trouble. I think, too, that it has been careless in its associations. I do not see evidence that it is a front for Al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, or any other organization. Similarly, allegations about Saudi funding of fundamentalist mosques were tossed into the air, but beyond innuendo, there was no ‘there’ there.
The term ‘Islamist’ was getting kicked around a lot, too. It was apparent from those using the term that they didn’t really know what it meant, but it was certainly scary. No definitions were offered, nor was there any discussion of the role of religion, per se, in society or government.
A variety of Representatives were allotted a few minutes in which to make their own remarks. Most of that was, in my opinion, pretty vacuous. Democrats made noises about freedom and not profiling entire groups. Republicans made different noises—though at much the same whiny pitch—about the enemy within and not letting political correctness become a barrier to security. All of these things, of course, are good things, but were offered up with no substance, no argument, no knowledgeable basis for making them. The Representatives came across as walk-on actors in a theater piece.
While these hearings may have had a useful role in bringing important topics to the public, they offered no suggestion as to what should come next, how things should be done or be better done. Rep. King has promised more hearings, at a date to be determined. I hope they are more substantial than what we saw today.
Al-Watan is a Saudi Arabic-language daily newspaper that has taken some strong stands against religious conservatism in the past. It has a generally reformist slant and is willing to be critical of the status quo. The Emirati news portal, Emirates 24/7, reports that two female, veteran journalists have been removed from their jobs. The report offers no reason behind this move, however.
This morning, the Committee on Homeland Security of the US House of Representatives is holding public hearings on Radical Islam and the American Muslim community’s response to it. Headed by Rep. Peter King of New York, the mere conducting of the hearings have proved to be contentious. Some allege that King is a modern day Joe McCarthy, a Senator in the 1950s whose name has become synonymous with political witch hunts. The American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups have protested it, claiming that it seeks to demonize peace-loving American Muslims. Some on the right contend that it’s an overdue part of the necessary conversations about Islam, terrorism, and duties of citizenship.
Ironies abound, too, as Rep. King, of Irish descent, is noted for his support of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) even when it was formally labeled a terrorist organization. I suppose that if there’s truth in the commonplace about it taking a thief to know a thief, then it might transfer to the subject of terrorism.
The hearing starts at 0930, Eastern Standard Time. You can watch it, as it occurs, at the link below, provided by the House of Representatives.
The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community
and that Community’s Response
CSPAN, the non-profit cable TV channel that broadcasts congressional hearings, begins its coverage at 0915.
‘Mother Jones’, a left-wing news magazine, writes about the hearings and their background. It offers its own suggestions about what to watch out for.
The Washington Post editorializes that the hearings are worth holding. It thinks King wrong on many points—as his claim that ’80% of US mosques are controlled by radical leaders’—but that given the rise in ‘home-grown’ terrorism, related by its perpetrators to Islam, we need to get an idea of just what is going on in the US. It cautions, though, that the hearings should serve to include American Muslims in the solution to the problem, not alienate them from the start.
The Post also talks about the hearings as A key moment in an angry conversation and The questions that Rep. Peter King is right to ask.
I’ll watch and give my reactions later in the day…
Blackmail has grown to be a serious problem in Saudi Arabia, report Saudi Gazette/Okaz. A nationwide study of the issue, conducted by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, shows it to be a problem primarily of young men who get information or pictures about women and use it to solicit sex or some other favor. To deny their demands is to risk public humiliation for the woman and her family, perhaps even criminal prosecution.
The punishment for blackmail is significant, with fines up to SR 500,000 (US $133,333) and/or prison. That doesn’t seem to stop the miscreants, though. The report suggests that they are driven by psychological factors driven by family dysfunctions and broken families. I don’t suppose that hyper-suppressed sex drives has anything to do with it.
What is a bit curious is the report says that 3% of reported cases are the result of women blackmailing men. I doubt that that’s being undertaken for sex, though it’s possible. It could be simply for money, but the article does not explain.
Government studies effects of blackmailing in Saudi society
MAJID AL-SUQAIRIMADINA: A Kingdom-wide study on the phenomenon of blackmailing among Saudis has shown that it is overwhelmingly a matter of young men blackmailing girls, although three percent of the cases involve girls blackmailing young men, and Dr. Yusuf Al-Othaimeen, minister of Social Affairs, stressed the necessity “to strike blackmailers with an iron fist”.
The study was conducted by a committee with members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the Hai’a), the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution and police departments.
It found that blackmailing has spread widely in urban areas of the Kingdom, accounting for 66 percent of all cases.
Blackmailing cases often involve youths luring girls, taking their pictures, demanding money or sex and threatening to publish the pictures on the Internet or place them at the gates of buildings where the girls live with their parents.
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