JEDDAH — A prominent human rights lawyer said yesterday that the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice committed various violations in the way one of its members arrested a 37-year-old businesswoman in Riyadh.

Yara was arrested on Feb. 4 by commission members for being in the family section of a Riyadh Starbucks cafe with a Syrian colleague.

“There is a good possibility of winning the case against the commission if Yara filed a lawsuit at the Court of Grievances,” Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem told Arab News.

He added that the commission member in this case violated an order from the Interior Ministry that binds commission members to produce suspects at the local police center. It is the local police’s responsibility to investigate such cases.

“The Interior Ministry rule is clear on that matter,” Al-Lahem said. “The commission must hand over anyone they arrest in any case to the police.”

The lawyer added that placing a suspect in a taxi for transfer is a clear violation of existing rules, which is what happened in Yara’s case. Al-Lahem said that the commission member should have had proper identification. “He’s actually violating the commission’s own rules,” he said. “When arresting someone, they should present the commission’s ID card.” Yara has claimed that the member who arrested her refused to produce any identification.

The lawyer also questioned the commission’s claim that Yara and her colleague were violating Islamic law and instead criticized the commission member for forcing Yara into a taxi.

“What is a Shariah violation?” he questioned. “Who defines one? There is no legislation that prevents people who are not related from meeting in public. In fact, being in a limousine with an unrelated man is more of a ‘khulwa’ than being in a coffee shop.” (Khulwa is defined as being in a state of seclusion with an unrelated man or woman.)

In its statement on Monday, the commission charged that Yara and her colleague violated Labor Ministry regulations for “working together”.

Al-Lahem countered this saying the commission is not authorized to monitor Labor Ministry violations.

“The minister of labor is the only authority to check on such violations,” he said. “Does the commission now want to monitor all violations in the country?”

In addition, the commission accused two prominent Saudi columnists — Abdullah Al-Alami of Al-Watan newspaper and Abdullah Abou Alsamh of the Okaz daily — of supporting illegal and un-Islamic activities.

Abou Alsamh denies making any un-Islamic remarks in his column and said he merely questioned the commission’s interpretations about khulwa.

“My point was that the commission members humiliated her,” he said. “They said that under Islamic law a woman couldn’t travel without mahram (a legal male guardian). If so, then why is the government allowing this? Why are local airlines not prohibiting women from traveling alone?”

In Al-Alami’s case, the commission threatened legal action against him for describing Yara’s arrest as an “abduction”.

“I still stick to what I said in my column,” Al-Alami told Arab News yesterday. “I’m committed to human rights as mandated under the law.”

Arab News attempted to contact Abdullah Al-Shathari, the head of the Riyadh branch of the commission, who released the statement on Monday. He was, however, not available.

— Additional input by Ali Al-Zahrani