Saudi Gazette report MAKKAH — The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai'a) has arrested two foreigners for allegedly harassing and blackmailing women. One man, according to a local daily, is an Arab national in his 30s who is believed to have kept an Asian housemaid in his house for about a month while the second is an Asian who allegedly told a young woman in Makkah he would circulate her photos if she refused to give in to his advances. The Arab suspect reportedly used to buy his groceries from a shop near the house where the housemaid is employed. He saw her several times at the store and started talking to her. He was finally able to persuade her to run away from her sponsor. She stayed with him in his home for about a month, during which they entered into an illicit relationship. He then started making telephone calls to the sponsor's wife and asked her to pay him SR100,000 in exchange for the housemaid, it was alleged. The couple contacted Hai'a officers, who attempted to arrest the suspect but did not succeed the first time. They then formed two teams consisting of its men and police officers. The suspect was arrested in one of the residential districts in Makkah and handed over to police for questioning. The Asian expatriate, who is 30, trapped his victim after he bought a mobile phone that the young woman had sold in the used phone market. However, she had forgotten to take the memory card out of the handset and her pictures were still on it. He contacted the victim and told her he would post her pictures on social media unless she gave in to his advances. The girl immediately complained to the Hai'a, which advised her to meet the man. When she met the man Hai'a officers also showed up and arrested him. He admitted being in possession of the memory card, adding that he wanted money and also wanted to have sex with the girl. The Hai'a handed him over to the police for further investigations.
