MADINAH, 30 April 2008 — A lawyer representing two members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice denied that his clients had confessed to being involved in last month’s fatal accident that killed four people near Madinah.
Nasir Al-Jabri was referring to Arabic language media reports that said commission members confessed to pursuing moral-crime suspects, which would be in violation of Interior Ministry rules regarding what commission members can and cannot do in the execution of their duties.
“The report of evidences with the Investigation and Prosecution Board showed that the commission members’ car did not bear any mark of contact or collision with the ill-fated car,” said the lawyer. The report also did not indicate that there were track marks on the desert road suggesting a chase. My clients were just making their routine patrol in the Baida picnic center and had passed by the scene sometime after the accident.”
The commission is prohibited from engaging in potentially dangerous vehicular pursuits. In the event of a vehicular getaway, the commission members must involve police. The families of the two dead men, the dead woman and her daughter have filed grievances against the two commission members. They are asking for the death penalty.
Al-Jabri referred to a witness who said he did not see a pursuing vehicle when he witnessed the car crashing into a water tank on a farm.
“The witness told the investigators that while he was walking on Khaleel Road a speeding Ford sedan passed by and crashed. He did not see any commission car chasing it,” said Al-Jabri.
He pointed out that the witness in the case, an Egyptian farmhand, told investigators that the first car to arrive at the scene was a police car followed by an ambulance.
Authorities have been investigating the two commission members, as well as a policeman who was with the commission members at the time. The officer was not driving the commission vehicle at the time. It is common for commission members to have a police officer with them during their patrols in case they need assistance in arresting suspects.
Muhammad Khoj, whose son Omar was one of the four victims, has spoken to the press in recent weeks vowing to pursue his claim against the commission members.
The accident took place on March 31 when the car the four were traveling overturned some 20 kilometers outside Madinah. Eyewitness reports then blamed commission officials for the accident. The commission’s director in Madinah Fahd Al-Khidr called the allegations baseless and said his organization had nothing to do with the accident.
