A man and wife accused of attacking members of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the Hai'a) have claimed that they were pressured into changing their testimony at Al-Jame'a Police Station and have appealed for intervention from the minister of interior and the Human Rights Commission. The couple, who have been released on the orders of the Governor of Jeddah, have given details of the incident which allegedly occurred after their son was involved in an altercation with the Hai'a outside a girls' school last Wednesday. According to Muhammad Al-Hakami, his wife went to Hai'a offices to inquire about the detention and alleged beating of their son. “The Hai'a ordered her inside the offices but she refused saying that being with unrelated man without a guardian is against Islamic Shariah, so she asked the Hai'a official who was about to leave to wait for me to arrive so he could speak to me, but instead he just drove off,” Al-Hakami said. Al-Hakami said that when he later arrived at the building he met the Hai'a deputy head who, he claims, “attacked us when I told him that 950 riyals had gone missing from my son's wallet when he was searched by the Hai'a at the school”. “The deputy chief started blaming me for my son's misconduct so I asked the Hai'a official to swear on the Holy Qur'an if that he and his colleagues saw immoral behavior on the part of my son,” he said. “When I told them about the missing money the deputy chief called his colleagues over to tell them that I'd accused them of theft and lying, and then they detained us at the offices until I called the police by mobile phone,” he said. “The police found no evidence that we'd attacked the Hai'a, but we were taken to the Jame'a Police Station where they questioned me, my wife and son without any Hai'a officials present, and the Hai'a sent over a report on the incident with a representative from the Hai'a.” Al-Hakami also claims that a police sergeant then refused to sign the report and a patrol officer signed it in his stead. “We will not give in to the pressure and we hope that the officials concerned will hear us,” he said. “We intend to see justice done.” Al-Hakami also appealed to the Ministry of Interior and the Human Rights Commission to intervene and hear the testimony of himself and his wife – who claims she was “humiliated and insulted” by Hai'a staff - and also hear the statements of eye witnesses. “I also want the ministry and commission to hear from the patrol officer present at the time of the incident at the gate of the Hai'a offices because he knows all the details,” Al-Hakami said. Prince Mish'al Bin Majed, Governor of Jeddah, ordered the release of the couple on Saturday, but their accusers reiterated their intention to proceed with their claim. “The police and members of the Hai'a have no intention of dropping their private action,” said the Hai'a spokesman for the Makkah region, Salim Al-Sarawani. According to a brother of the son confronted by the Hai'a at a girls' school, “the whole thing began when they the Hai'a took my brother into custody for being at the school, but he was only there to pick up our sister who's a pupil at the school”. “The Hai'a hit him and injured him in the eye, and there are witnesses to that, and he also lost a large amount of money when they searched his wallet.” “When my parents then went with my brother to the Hai'a's offices to complain they were locked in a room for four hours, forcing them to call the police. They were refused release under guarantee, contrary to the law, and my mother was taken to Bariman General Prison,” he said. An eyewitness who wished to remain anonymous said he saw the Hai'a tie the hands of the youth and hit him. “I'm prepared to appear before a court as a witness,” he said.
