The Hai’a has some explaining to do

Abed Khazindar
Al-Riyadh newspaper

RIYADH — The deadly car chase, involving a member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai’a) on Sunday, allegedly led to the death of a Saudi national in Al-Baha region on Friday.

This accident was extensively covered in the local media and, in less than a day, users on social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook were discussing it. The news was also widely circulated by international news agencies.

Meanwhile, the official spokesman of the Hai’a in Al-Baha region, Nasser Al-Zahrani, refused to comment to Okaz reporters.

As the official spokesman of the Hai’a, why wasn’t Al-Zahrani at the scene of the accident? He should have participated in the rescue operation or at least been present at the location to get a clear understanding of what had happened and attempted to explain to the press who was responsible and what actions would be taken. Yet, for whatever reason or direction he received, he turned his cell phone off, giving the impression that the Hai’a was not responsible in any way for the accident and that those killed and injured were the guilty ones.

The victim becomes the accused. This is a classical tactic used by the Hai’a to evade responsibility. This time, it did not work as there are eyewitnesses, some of them police officers, who will assist authorities in their investigation.

And this time, the Hai’a cannot escape responsibility. What happened is not an isolated event; due to similar events in the past, Hai’a members were banned from taking part in car chases.

I do not want to describe how this accident — which resulted in the death of a man and hospitalization of his pregnant wife and two children — happened. I simply demand that the commission explain what happened and a thorough investigation of the accident take place.