Arab News
MAKKAH, Mar 28: A man who died jumping from the window of a third floor apartment used as a brothel in Dammam did so after seeing members of the vice police through a secret camera downstairs and before they had reached the apartment, said a police spokesman in Dammam.
“The guy fell to his death while trying to escape before members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice had even raided the brothel. He saw them through a secret camera that had been installed downstairs,” said Col. Yusuf Al-Qahtani, official spokesman for Dammam police.
He added that commission members were ordered to investigate the apartment after receiving a tip-off that it was being used as a “house of ill-repute.” Three women, all of African nationalities, and two men, one Arab and the other an African, were arrested in the raid.
“We’re still trying to work out the role of the 39-year-old man who died jumping out the window. We want to establish whether he was a customer or a pimp. He jumped out to escape and not in a suicide attempt,” said Al-Qahtani.
“He fell onto the street below and broke several bones. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead,” said the police spokesman, adding that no commission members have been arrested.
Meanwhile, Ahmed Al-Ghamdi, head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in the Makkah Region, said the death was unfortunate and that the commission does not wish to see people die in such a way.
“The commission cares for society and people. Some people attempt to escape from their wrongdoings in a way that put their lives in danger. It is a fact that commission members and police officers face resistance and are sometimes assaulted while at work,” he said.
“The commission does not raid homes until they receive direct orders from a responsible authority who monitors all activities to check on the way members operate,” he said.
Al-Ghamdi further called on people to report such crimes, which, he said, are ruining the moral fabric of society.