JEDDAH — The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai'a) has arrested a 35-year-old man in connection with the abduction, blackmail and rape of a young girl in the Eastern Province. Police said the attacker convinced the victim that he wanted to marry her. When she gave him her picture, he started blackmailing her. When she met him near a hotel in Al-Khobar she asked him to return her picture. After a heated argument the man persuaded her to accompany him for a drive. He drove her to a deserted sandy area where he repeatedly raped her at gunpoint. Investigations revealed that the man drove back the girl and dumped her near a mall where she contacted the Hai'a. A Hai'a patrol managed to apprehend the suspect but only after a hectic chase. As the suspect tried to escape he hit the officers' car, but the Hai'a members managed to overpower him and arrest him. On searching the suspect's car the Hai'a members found a number of pictures of the victim and messages on his telephone that contained threatening language. They also found in his possession a pistol, 14 bullets, a large knife and pictures of other girls. The Hai'a members handed him over to police in Al-Khobar and the girl to her family.
