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Riyadh: Saudi Arabia has banned its anti-vice squad from detaining suspects after recent deaths in their custody raised questions about the role of the controversial force.
Newspapers reported yesterday that Interior Ministry guidelines distributed to state prosecutors include an explicit ban on extracting confessions, and inspections of anti-vice squad offices to ensure no one is being held there.
The order - which news agencies said was not meant to be made public - came amid reports that the squad sacked two of its members for questioning an Austrian pilgrim in Madinah after she filed a complaint with a government rights body.
Earlier this year, Qudra Dawoud from Australia accused the two squad members of verbally insulting and cursing her in public while she waited for her husband in the city, said Hussain Al Sharif, of the National Society for Human Rights.
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