JEDDAH: Incidents involving prayer made up 78 percent of cases handled by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) over the past year.

Twenty-four percent of cases involved moral issues, with 12.11 percent dealing with behavior and 11.8 percent involving incidents of misbehavior in public places, according to a report published in a local publication recently.

The organization also dealt with various commercial issues, which made up 2.69 percent

Those dealing with intoxicants and publications constituted about one percent of the cases, the report stated.

The report further stated that the Haia’s branches organized 8,964 seminars and lectures in 13 areas across the Kingdom. Asir had the most with 1,609 sessions.

In addition, Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Abdullah Al-Sanad, president of of the organization, has now launched training programs for employees throughout the Kingdom for the coming year.

Al-Sanad said that the aim is to improve the knowledge of all employees, and it will target 17,600 trainees, focusing on Islamic law, field work, regulations and administrative practices.

The commission has also established units to combat information technology crimes at each of its branches, which are linked directly to its headquarters. It will handle complaints and carry out investigations with other government agencies. The Haia has also established a unit to combat extortion.