JEDDAH: The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) Thursday denied reports that the 56-year-old man charged and convicted of marrying more than four wives is a commission agent. Instead, a Haia spokesman said, the man was a security guard of a Haia precinct in Masarha, Jazan.
“The accused was neither a field employee nor an administrator in the Haia but rather a building security man,” Abdul Mohsen Al-Qifari, director of public relations for the Riyadh-based General Presidency of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, said in a statement. Al-Qifari said the Haia had been responsible for investigating and pursuing charges against the man. He was arrested in July 2008. The man, who has not been identified publicly, was sentenced by a court in this southern town to 120 lashes and ordered to memorize chapters of the Holy Qur’an. He has also been prohibited from leaving the country for five years or delivering sermons and leading prayers in mosques.
“By dealing with this case the Haia is sending a clear message that it will not favor or spare anyone who breaks the divine laws,” the spokesman said in his letter.
The convicted man was married to three Saudi women and three Yemenis who were reportedly illegal residents. The man said in court that he had no idea that Islam prohibited marrying more than four wives. However, at the time of his arrest he had denied the charges saying that he had already divorced two of his wives.
Capital punishment was removed from the case once it was determined that the man was not an adulterer, however he faces charges of being illegally married to non-Saudis without permission from the Interior Ministry.
