They said the man, who was awarded a contract to clean Makkah last Haj, allegedly sold many of the visas granted to him for hiring foreign workers to other people so they could perform Haj.

According to the sources, the contractor was found guilty by a six-member committee comprising representatives of the Makkah governorate, the Makkah municipality, the passport police, the Control and Investigation Board (CIB), the labor office in Makkah and the Administrative Investigation Department.

The sources would not disclose the name of the suspect but said the sports personality, who is also a businessman and contractor, was questioned on Monday prior to handing him over to the Prosecution and Investigation Commission.

They said investigations revealed that he allegedly sold 2,120 out of 4,000 work visas to Haj pilgrims from a number of countries instead of using them to recruit cleaners.

The sources said the suspect allegedly brought only 2,000 workers and sold the rest of the visas to doctors, engineers and academics who arrived in Madinah where he had prepared accommodation for them. They added his plan went as he wished and he was not discovered then.

The sources said the contractor supplied the pilgrims with buses to take them to Makkah but a driver lost his way and went instead to Mina, raising the suspicions of security officers who were able to uncover the plot, especially after they noticed that the level of cleanliness in the holy sites was not up to required standards.

The sources said security personnel expanded their investigations and unraveled the corruption. They said the six-man committee started its investigation immediately after Haj.

The sources expected the suspect to be fined at least SR21 million in addition to the SR6 million already deducted from the value of his contract because of the substandard level of cleanliness.