Residents of Al-Shabaha Center in Tabuk have accused a local official of building a wedding hall in a cemetery in their village, with the structure on some graves. The village is located 80 km east of Omluj governorate. The villagers have further claimed that the official abused his office by trying to buy the land when he was the governor of Al-Shabaha a few years ago. He stopped trying to do so when a citizen encroached on the land at the same time. The villagers claim they advised the official against taking the land and told him that it was part of the cemetery. “The investor fooled us into thinking that he bought the land from the citizen who encroached upon it in order to fence it and preserve the cemetery. But we were shocked when he constructed a wedding hall on it.” Okaz/Saudi Gazette has learned that the official is trying to obtain approval to remove graveyards adjacent to the wedding hall so that he can construct a parking lot. Residents have objected to this proposal. Abdullah Muhammad Al-Hubaishi said that his father fenced the other side of the cemetery and built a room for washing dead bodies before burial. The villagers told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that the cemetery was built a long time ago and contains the remains of their ancestors. They said that their forefathers fenced part of the cemetery 45 years ago but did not fence the other side because the graveyards were scattered in different areas. The villagers have appealed to the governorate to intervene and preserve the sanctity of the dead and inspect whether the wedding hall was built on graves. They demanded that a committee be formed to inspect the location and for some senior villagers, who are over 100 years old, to give their testimony before the court. An informed source at Omluj Municipality said that the wedding hall does not have a construction license and that the investor's application for license was rejected two years ago because the location did not meet the necessary specifications. Okaz/Saudi Gazette met with the official, who holds a leading position in Omluj governorate. He denied he had constructed a wedding hall on or nearby the cemetery. “The claims of the village people are baseless and are without a shred of truth.” He indicated that there is a fenced cemetery far away from the wedding hall. When he was told that Okaz/Saudi Gazette had visited the wedding hall and the surrounding area, he then admitted: “Yes, there are two or three graveyards near the wedding hall. I have filed a request at Omluj court three months ago to have these graveyards removed. The judge sent my request to the Grand Mufti and no approval has been granted yet.” __
