Suadi sex cops on trial for man killed in custody

AP/NY Times:

Three members of Saudi Arabia's powerful religious police face trial Saturday for the death of a man who died in custody. The case is the first of its kind in this conservative nation.

The trial involves the death of a Saudi man the police arrested for being alone with a woman who was not a relative -- an act considered an offense in the kingdom. It will be held in the northern city of Tabuk, close to the Iraqi border.

It isn't clear how long the trial will last or what punishment the men might face if found guilty.

The proceedings are seen as a major setback for the Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, a feared government body that employs the religious police. It has long been resented for intimidating people and meddling into the most minute aspects of their lives.

The religious police, informally known as the muttawa, enforce the kingdom's strict Islamic rules and lifestyle. They patrol public places, including malls, to ensure that women are covered in the mandatory black abaya, or cloak, that the sexes do not mix in public, that shops close five times a day for prayers and that the men go to the mosque and worship.

The muttawa don't wear uniforms, but are recognizable by their long beards and their robes, shorter than the ones normally worn by Saudi men. They also shun the black cord that holds men's headdress down.

Saturday's case involves the death of Ahmed al-Bulaiwi, a retired border patrol guard who died in the commission's custody shortly after he was arrested in Tabuk by the religious police.

The police became suspicious after they observed a woman getting into his car at an amusement park, according to accounts published by the local media. Under the kingdom's strict segregation rules, a woman can only go out in public with her father, brother, son or husband.

But an investigation showed that al-Bulaiwi, who supplemented his pension by working as a driver, was asked by the family of the woman, who was in her 50s, to drive her home.

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Another name for the sex cops should be perverts on patrol. They are representatives of a sick culture of control freaks that require submission to the weird religious beliefs of a Saudi cult offshoot of Islam. Another man died in their custody after a raid on his house looking for alcohol. They were also responsible for the deaths of 15 girls who died in a fire because they were not permitted to leave the burning structure without the black covering the perverts require.