MAKKAH, 22 May 2007 — Police arrested a Nigerian national who was performing illegal abortions from his home in the Al-Mansour district of Makkah. Following a tip-off, police began monitoring the man named Saeed Ali and were able to confirm their suspicions.
Col. Muhammad Al-Minshawi from the Makkah police sent an undercover officer, accompanied by a woman, to the man’s house. The officer told Ali that the woman was his girlfriend and that she wanted an abortion because she had become pregnant with him out of wedlock.
The police officer offered to pay a huge amount of money to carry out the operation. At that, the expatriate’s female assistant of the same nationality entered the room with tools to perform the operation.
Ali became suspicious of the couple after being offered a huge amount of money and tried to escape by making an excuse to go outside to bring something to help him complete the procedure. However, officers who were waiting outside arrested him.
The man and his assistant, together with other evidence gleaned from the house, were taken to the Al -Mansour police station for further investigations. Police said that the man would most probably be sent to jail and then deported.
Arab News met the 42-year-old Nigerian in the police cell. He said he has been doing abortions for over nine years in the Kingdom. “I charge Saudi women SR5,000 for every operation and non-Saudis SR2,000. Saudi women can afford to pay the amount but they rarely come to me,” he said.
“As for non-Saudis they are my best customers because they are involved in many illegal relationships,” he said, adding that he has managed to accumulate a huge amount of money while operating in the Kingdom.
Ali does not carry a medical certificate and said that he arrived in the Kingdom after someone told him in Nigeria that doing abortions in the country was a profitable business.
Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Makkah, said it is a major crime to abort a child after the fourth month of pregnancy unless there are specific medical reasons sanctioning it.
“A certified doctor is the one, who can determine whether an abortion operation should be performed or not based on clinical examinations. Such men, like the one who was arrested, should be punished severely and people should be warned about dealing with them. They should be reported to the police,” he said.
