Haia chief orders probe into attack on Saudi-British couple

A YouTube video that shows a British couple allegedly being attacked by officials from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Haia) at a shopping mall in Riyadh has gone viral on social media forums, prompting
Local officials and senior Haia functionaries to launch an investigation.

About 300,000 viewers have seen the clip so far.
“The British Embassy is fully aware of the incident and the embassy is offering every possible assistance to the couple,” said a British Embassy spokesman on Monday. He, however, refused to share more information on the incident.

Haia spokesman Turki Al-Shaleel said Haia President Abdullatif Al-Asheikh has ordered an investigation into the incident, which took place on Friday night.
The short video shows a man dressed in a traditional Saudi thobe jumping on the Briton in the presence of his wife, who is seen wearing a black abaya.

They have been identified as Peter Howarth Lees and his Saudi wife, Abeer, in different online reports published on Monday. Arab News could not reach Lees for a first-hand account of the incident.

Opinions were divided on the details surrounding the incident.
One eyewitness said the incident took an ugly turn when the Briton hurled abuses at Haia men after they had asked him to leave a supermarket counter allocated for women and families. The man had initially been standing alone in that queue, said eyewitness Ibrahim Abdul Rahman, whose interview has been published in a section of the Arabic press.

Abdul Rahman said he went to the parking lot and noticed the Haia men writing down notes on a piece of paper, during which the British man started taking pictures of the Haia members and their car.
Infuriated Haia members allegedly asked the Briton to stop taking pictures, but he did not respond. A commission member then pushed the Briton, while several people tried to calm the situation down.
“We do not believe that the actions of these three men represent Saudi society and culture, but we expect answers from authorities,” he said.
Lees claimed in his statements published on social media that he took pictures of the men when they started taking pictures of him and his car, as an insurance in case something untoward happened to himself and his wife.
Sharif Al-Otaibi, a local businessman, has called for a thorough investigation.
Saudis shared their concerns and comments on social media platforms under different hashtags. “Religious policemen need to take courses and more classes on how to deal with people and to learn what is considered appropriate and what is not,” Said Sanaa Hamed, a Twitter subscriber.
“We have seen and heard a lot from the Haia; locals and expats are treated like guilty people even when they are not and this is unacceptable,” said Abdullah Al-Jehani, another Twitter subscriber.
Other netizens, however, held a different view on the matter.
“There is no smoke without fire. These men are reli- gious and pious and there is no way they will act before they think. They must have seen something suspicious from the married couple and had to act fast,” said Hanan Kamal, another Twitter subscriber.
The Shoura Council, meanwhile, criticized the behavior of certain Haia members and said that such acts were not only tarnishing the organization’s image, but also the Kingdom’s international reputation.
“A Shoura member called for a neutral study on the organization’s field activities,” said Fahaad Al-Hamad, assistant president of the consultative body. A woman member stressed the need for Haia members to undergo intense training through the support of a Saudi university.