Investigators are grilling some 50 people, mostly expatriates, for allegedly attending a gay wedding in Madinah last Wednesday. The case has now been passed to the investigation and prosecution department. The suspects deny they were attending a gay marriage, which is prohibited in the Kingdom, saying they took part in a ceremony to mark the wedding of a Chadian friend.
But investigators say that invitations to the ceremony indicated it was a gay function and point to the suspicious behavior of guests, who fled the venue at the sight of the police cars, some leaving their vehicles behind.
| "Cheeze it, Bruce! It's the coppers!" |
The incident sent shock waves through Saudi society when it was first reported on Friday by Al-Jazirah Arabic newspaper. The paper said police arrested guests at the wedding of an all-male couple from Chad. But the accused Chadian told the police that he was rehearsing for his legal marriage, to be held at a wedding hall on Friday. His Saudi sponsor confirmed the man’s story saying he had given him some money to meet the marriage expenses. Security sources said they raided a rest house in Madinah’s Aziziyah District after a tip-off from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. They also said participants left more than 30 cars in the area, which police impounded. |