MAKKAH, 27 February 2008 — The head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Makkah has hit back at claims that the commission conspired against a professor who was sentenced to jail for eight months and 180 lashes for being in a state of “khulwa” (seclusion) with an unrelated woman, Al-Madinah newspaper reported yesterday.
Ahmad Kasim Al-Ghamdi, head of the commission in Makkah, said the vice cops had received a number of complaints from several girls about the professor, adding that they had also recorded some of his phone calls and that he was arrested in a state of khulwa.
Al-Ghamdi said that the commission had presented all its evidence to the Board of Investigation and General Prosecution, which took the case to court.
He also said that claims made by Abdullah Al-Sanusi, the professor’s lawyer, to Al-Madinah newspaper that his client had been framed and that the commission had sent the girl to entrap the professor were incorrect.
Al-Ghamdi said such claims amounted to accusing the prosecution board of failing to do its job, adding that they also have telephone recordings of the girl’s confession.
He said that Al-Sanusi’s claims that the prosecution board had returned the case to the commission saying it had not seen any evidence of khulwa and that the commission took the case directly to the General Court were incorrect. He said that the case was taken to the prosecution board, which followed all legal procedures and that the General Court found the professor guilty.
Al-Sanusi had previously claimed that members of the commission had fabricated the case against his client to take revenge against him. He said a number of commission members were his client’s students and that the professor had fallen into an argument with them during a lesson.
Al-Sanusi said some of the commission members had failed in the final exams and had therefore developed enmity toward the professor.
The lawyer said that his client had received a phone call from a girl asking to meet him to discuss a problem, which she said could not be discussed over the phone. The professor agreed to meet her at a coffee shop on condition that she brings her brother along with her.
When the professor arrived at the coffee shop, he was surprised to find the girl alone. When asked about her brother, the girl said he had not come. Soon a number of commission members surrounded the professor accusing him of being alone with the girl. He was handcuffed and handed into police custody, the lawyer said.
