Saudi Arabia arrests dozens over 'indecency', harassment

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia has arrested more than 200 people for violating "public decency" — including by wearing immodest clothing — and "harassment", police said.

Some 120 men and women have been arrested over the past week for offending public morals, including wearing "inappropriate clothes", Riyadh police said in a series of statements on Twitter since Tuesday.

It added that unspecified penalties were imposed on the violators.

Another 88 people were arrested in various harassment cases, police have added in separate statements, after several women complained on social media that they were harassed at the MDL Beast music festival in Riyadh earlier this month.

The electronic music festival, which drew tens of thousands of fans, was billed by organisers as the biggest ever to be hosted in the kingdom.

Police did not offer any further details, including the duration of the detentions.

This marked the first such mass crackdown since the kingdom began easing social restrictions, lifting decades-long bans on cinemas and women drivers while allowing gender-mixed concerts and sporting extravaganzas.

The relaxed social norms have been welcomed by many Saudis, two-thirds of whom are under 30.

But in September, Saudi Arabia said it would penalise violations of “public decency”, including wearing immodest clothing and public displays of affection, after the austere kingdom began issuing tourist visas for the first time.

Men and women must avoid “tight-fitting clothing” or clothes with “profane language or images”, read an instruction on an English language website launched by the tourism authority.

“Women should cover shoulders and knees in public,” it added.

Meanwhile, a Saudi court sentenced a Yemeni man to death Sunday for a knife attack on a Spanish theatre group, state television said.

The court also sentenced an accomplice to twelve-and-a-half years in jail for the November 11 attack during a live performance in Riyadh, which state media linked to militant group Al Qaeda, and which Madrid said left four performers wounded.

“The criminal court issues a preliminary ruling handing the death sentence to the perpetrator of the terrorist attack... in Riyadh,” the official Al-Ekhbariya television reported.

The assailant, identified by Saudi police as a 33-year-old Yemeni, went on a stabbing spree during a musical in the capital’s King Abdullah Park, one of the venues hosting the two-month “Riyadh Season” entertainment festival.

It was the first such assault since the ultra-conservative kingdom began easing restrictions on entertainment.

Last week, Al Ekhbariya said the attacker took orders from an Al Qaeda leader in Yemen, but so far there has been no claim of responsibility from the group.

Al Ekhbariya did not offer any details on his alleged accomplice.