RIYADH, 25 July 2007 — The trial of four members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice for their involvement in the death of a Saudi man at one of their centers in Tabuk in June continued yesterday with eyewitness testimony being admitted as evidence in the case.

The fifth hearing in this case has been scheduled for Monday, following the three presiding judges’ orders to the defendants to prepare answers to the testimonies next week. The defendants were released on bail until Monday.

“The reason why the trial continues to be extended is because in each session a new development arises,” Ouda Al-Bulawi, the attorney representing the family of the deceased man, Ahmed Al-Bulawi, told Arab News. The lawyer is not related to the deceased man.

The attorney said the judges have still not approved the family’s request to have another autopsy of the body after they made it clear that they were not convinced with the results of the official autopsy that cleared commission members of responsibility for their kin’s heart attack that resulted in his death at the commission center.

The family is demanding execution for the person they believe was responsible for the death of their kin, stating that Al-Bulawi’s heath was fine when he was arrested.

Ahmed Al-Bulawi, a retired border patrol officer, was arrested in Tabuk on June 1 by a part time commission member on suspicion of being in an illegal state of seclusion (when a man and a non-female relative are alone) when the member spotted a woman, reportedly in her 50s, get into his car near an amusement park.

Both Al-Bulawi and the woman were arrested and taken to the Sultana Commission Center. At the center, Al-Bulawi collapsed and died. It was later established that the woman’s family hired Al-Bulawi as a private driver who drove them on errands for extra cash to support his family.

The General Investigation and Prosecution Authority in Tabuk transferred the case to a religious court to try the commission members for alleged mistakes committed during the arrest and to try them according to the private rights of the family.

Tabuk Gov. Prince Fahd ibn Sultan had ordered that the family of the deceased be given a monthly salary from his own account upon learning the poor conditions they were living in.

In another case in which a man died in the custody of the commission, the family of Salman Al-Huraisi, a 28-year-old Saudi who was allegedly beaten to death by commission members when they stormed his house in the Al-Uraija district in the capital late May on suspicion he was selling alcohol, is in a limbo. The family is still waiting for the case to be transferred to a religious court where a commission member is due to stand trial for being responsible for the death of their kin in the incident.

Family members have refused to bury the body without a copy of the autopsy report, which officials have refused to provide.

Meanwhile, Madinah Gov. Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Majed followed up on the medical condition of a commission member who had been admitted to a hospital after a local resident ran his car over him.

The incident took place Saturday when the commission member, identified as Abdullah Al-Tuwaijiri, spotted the young man with a woman in an objectionable posture in the back seat of a car in one of Madinah’s streets. According to media reports, as the commission member tried to go near the vehicle the man jumped into the driver’s seat, started the engine, and ran him over.

Al-Tuwaijiri said he escaped death by a whisker as his head was just inches away from the car’s wheels when he was knocked down. The member was admitted to Al-Ansar Hospital following the incident. He suffered from three fractures in his left hand and some bruises. He is currently receiving medical treatment. He gave the license number of the vehicle to police who are looking for the suspect.