Saudi actor arrested in a mall by religious police for taking photos with women
Abdul Aziz Kassar was on Friday evening, October 23,
arrested by members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and
Prevention of Vice in a shopping mall in the capital
Riyadh for mixing with unrelated women.
The Saudi actor who
lives in Kuwait said that he had not expected the rousing welcome that
led to his arrest by the religious police as he was being mobbed by
several women who
were taking pictures and selfies with him.
The religious police said that
the artist who was on a working visit to Riyadh was disturbing public
order, mixing with women unrelated to him and abusing social media, and
remanded him to custody.
However, Al Kassar who was later
released, told Gulf Rotana private television station that he had
arrived on Thursday in Saudi Arabia on a work trip.
"I asked my
followers on Snapchat about the best mall to visit and they recommended
Al Nakheel, so I took up their suggestion and said on the social media
that I was going there on Friday," he said.
"However, I did not expect
to find so many people waiting for me. I want to clarify that the
presence of young women at the mall was not something under my control.
When I stepped in, several fans came over and surrounded me until
someone came over and pulled me aside into a room that I learned was
reserved for the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the
Prevention of Vice inside the mall. I understood that the man who pulled
me was a member of the commission and I did not resist him out of my
respect for the Commission," he said, quoted by Saudi news site Al
Marsad on Tuesday.
Al
Kassar added that the members of the Commission and mall officials
should have warned him about the presence of the large number of fans.
"They
did not tell me to stay away and that not meeting them was better," he
said. "They initially took away my mobile, but returned it to me later."
Al Kassar was given bail, but he will have to wait until
the prosecution ends its investigation into the case, particularly now
that the Commission had accused him of using social media to meet women
and take pictures with them inside the mall in flagrant violation of
the rules.
The actor has played several roles in Kuwaiti dramas
and presented programmes in the country. He is active on social media
and the number of his followers has increased following the incident at
the Riyadh mall.
Source: Gulf News
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