Muttawa Cleared of Murder

In a post on the "Qatif Girl" case I mentioned the case of two members of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (i.e. the Muttawa) who were accused of causing the death of a man who died in their custody.

(I have written a post dedicated to the Muttawa here. They are particularly infamous for causing the deaths of fifteen schoolgirls during a fire at their school. The Muttawa stopped the girls from getting out because their hair wasn't properly covered.)

Returning to the case of the two Muttawa, who allegedly killed a Saudi man by beating him to a pulp: according to this article, the case against them has been dropped:-

The judges in the case of two members of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice who were accused of causing the death of Salman Al-Huraisi following a raid of his house in May dismissed the charges yesterday in the Riyadh High Court.

The court in Riyadh “acquitted the two members of the Commission of the charge of being directly responsible for the death of Al-Huraisi, for lack of sufficient evidence,” the commission’s lawyer Yussef Al-Nuqaidan said.

. . .

A copy of the ruling, which was sent to Arab News, mentioned five reasons in which the three judges have stated to dismiss the case:

• That the testimonies of the eyewitnesses cannot be accepted because they said Commission members cannot testify against their colleagues;

• That the two defendants later retracted their confessions;

• That the testimonies of other Commission members in the case cannot be presented as evidence by the attorney representing the family;

• That family members have testified that the two defendants had beaten the deceased; and

• That the testimonies from the two defendants in their earlier confession did not mention that they had beaten the deceased in his head, which is considered the fatal blow which caused the death.

Compare the judge's eagerness to acquit in this case with the judge's attitude in the "Qatif Girl" case. It seems to be one law for the Muttawa and another for a female member of a religious minority!