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Saudi Religious Police Challenged In Lawsuits By Human Rights Lawyer

By Howard M. Friedman

Saudi human rights lawyer Abdel Rahman Al-Lahem says that he has filed an appeal to challenge the acquittal of two members of Saudi Arabia's Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. Yesterday Reuters and AFP reported that Lahem said he filed the appeal on June 4 after the verdict in the case of the death of Suleiman al-Huraisi was confirmed. Al-Huraisi died after being beaten by members of the religious police who raided his home seeking to prove that he was distributing alcohol. The appeal is based on the United Nations Convention Against Torture, signed by Saudi Arabia in 1997, as well as on the judges' definition of murder that came from their reading of Islamic law. (See prior related posting.)

Al-Lahem has also filed a defamation suit against two newspapers on behalf of al-Huraisi's family after the papers last month reported that religious police had arrested al-Huraisi's brother and others for selling alcohol. Today's Arab News reports on the lawsuit. It claims the news articles violate the Saudi Publication and Printing Law in identifying the brother.

Meanwhile Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem is also representing Umm Faisal who is suing for damages in the Court of Grievances because of her treatment by Saudi Arabia's religious police. Arab News reported yesterday that two members of the religious police detained Faisal and her two daughters in Riyadh in 2004 because the girls, in their automobile, were not covering their faces with the niqab. The police allegedly threw the driver out of the vehicle, drove off with the women, and had an accident, after which they left the women beside the road.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on June 16, 2008 (boomark / email).