- YANBU: A youth detained by Yanbu police for attacking police officers and members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has alleged that Haia members attacked his mother and brothers, Al-Madinah newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The youth was originally wanted by the Haia for harassing a woman in Yanbu on Thursday, said Brig. Mohsen Al-Raddadi, spokesman for Madinah police.
Al-Raddadi added that the youth and his half-brother were arrested after they fled following the attack on Haia members and policemen.
“A Haia member found the youth harassing a young woman in the streets of Yanbu. He asked him to hand over his identity papers but he refused and fled. He was, however, overpowered later,” said Bandar Al-Rabaish, spokesman for the Haia in Madinah.
The youth’s half-brother, however, said his brother did not resist arrest or assault any Haia members or policemen. He added that he only refused to go with a Haia member who asked him to accompany him to identify a young man who had been harassing women.
The arrested youth also said he was in the street shopping with his mother and brother when the Haia approached him. “On the contrary, the Haia members attacked my mother and a second brother causing them physical harm,” he said.
A Haia member, however, said the youth abused him, threw water in his face, threw stones at him, tried to run him over with his car and rammed a Haia car when it tried to stop him from fleeing. He added that the youth also attacked a policeman who tried to stop him.
He said none of the policemen or Haia members went near the mother who was brought to the scene of the confrontation by another man to rescue the youth from the Haia.
