02 September 2014

Saudi police beat British man who paid female clerk in shop

A British businessman who brought stand-up comedy to Saudi Arabia has been beaten by the country’s religious police while shopping with his wife.

Peter Howarth-Lees and his Saudi-born wife, Abeer al-Fouti, were repeatedly punched and kicked after he had tried to pay a female cashier at a supermarket in Riyadh.

Three members of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or Haia, had confronted him, accusing him of breaking the kingdom’s rules by using a female cashier while not part of a family group. [The Times (£)] Read more