ABHA, 29 June 2003 — The disciplinary department in the Court of Grievances in Riyadh has found a member of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice guilty of abusing his authority.
The committee member, or mutawwa as they are commonly known, was sentenced to 10 days in prison following revelations from Saudi and expatriate witnesses, in addition to a well-known imam, that they saw him give a severe beating to an Arab expatriate worker. The committee member, they said, tried to strangle and verbally abuse the Arab expatriate in front of his children, calling him “an animal”.
However, a royal pardon has exempted the official from serving his jail sentence. Because his record until this incident was unblemished, the committee member only had to give a written undertaking that he would never repeat such actions.
The disciplinary department said in its ruling that the behavior of this member was not acceptable and that the president of the committee suspended him from his work after he was sentenced to jail.
The supervision and investigation authority in Qasim, where the incident took place, had demanded that the official be fired because he had violated his authority and his position. Both require that he set a good example for people and deal with them politely and considerately rather than by using physical or verbal abuse.
Sources told Arab News that an official at the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice said that the committee rejected such behavior on the part of their employees and added that their jobs required an understanding personality and patience when dealing with members of the public.
