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Riyadh: A judge yesterday postponed the trial of three members of Saudi Arabia's powerful religious police for their alleged involvement in the death of a man in custody.
The judge did not set a date for the trial, the first of its kind in this conservative nation.
The case involves the death of Ahmad Al Bulaiwi, a Saudi man arrested by the religious police for being alone with a woman who was not a relative - an act considered an offence in the kingdom.
Al Bulaiwi's cousin, Audah Al Bulaiwi, who is representing the family in court, said the trial was postponed because the documents he presented to the judge were incomplete.
While Saudis are allowed to appoint lawyers, many choose to send a family representative instead.
Speaking to The Associated Press by phone from the northern city of Tabuk, where the hearings were due yesterday, Audah Al Bulaiwi said of his dead cousin: "He went into custody a healthy man. He got out in a funeral procession."
Violation
A statement by the governorate of Tabuk, issued earlier in the week on the proceedings, did not say what the charges against the men were or what punishment they could face if found guilty.
The case is seen as a major setback for the Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, a government body that employs the religious police.
It has long been resented for intimidating people and meddling into the most minute aspects of their lives.
Al Bulaiwi, a retired border patrol guard in his early 50s, died in the commission's custody shortly after his June 1 arrest by the religious police in Tabuk.
The police became suspicious after they observed a woman getting into his car near an amusement park, according to accounts published by the local media.
But an investigation showed that Al Bulaiwi, who supplemented his pension by working as a driver, was asked by the family of the woman, who was in her 50s, to drive her home, according to press reports.
The Tabuk governorate had said Al Bulaiwi died as a result of a severe drop in blood pressure and failure of the respiratory system.
"It's the governmental body that violates human rights the most," said Abdul Rahman Al Lahem, a human rights activist and lawyer.
Muttawa enforces strict rules
The religious police, informally known as the muttawa, enforce strict Islamic rules and lifestyle.
They patrol public places, including malls, to ensure that women are covered in the mandatory black abaya, or cloak, that the sexes do not mix in public, that shops close five times a day for prayers and that the men go to the mosque and worship.
The muttawa don't wear uniforms, but are recognisable by their long beards and their robes, shorter than the ones normally worn by Saudi men.
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