MADINAH, 15 May 2008 — Two members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice who were arrested in connection with the deaths of four people in an accident on Khaleel Road near Madinah were released yesterday, their lawyer said.
“The two commission members were released on Wednesday after 36 days in detention as there is no legal basis to continue detaining them at the present stage of the case,” said Sultan ibn Zahim, the lawyer representing the two men.
Earlier Zahim criticized the General Investigation and Prosecution Board (GIPB) for detaining his clients, claiming it violated clause 37 of the criminal procedures law that states that no one should be jailed without valid legal reasons.
The lawyer said the board recently transferred the case to the Monitoring and Investigation Commission without releasing the two suspects or specifying the grounds for their detention.
The case became further complicated after the transfer, as the commission refused to either release them or specify a detention period saying that the GIPB should issue a release order.
The lawyer had accused the GIPB of committing a gross mistake by arresting the two commission members, as they were law-enforcement agents. He pointed out that the GIPB did not have the authority to detain the officers if the charge against them was related to an error while discharging duty.
The monitoring commission is the appropriate body to arrest or interrogate a law-enforcement officials. The role of the GIPB in such cases is confined to recording the statements of the accused and witnesses, and gathering evidence.
The accident took place on March 31 when a car in which two youths and two women were traveling overturned outside Madinah. Eyewitness reports then blamed commission officials for the accident. Commission officials refuted the charges and said the organization had nothing to do with the accident.
