Saudi Arabia’s religious police have arrested a group of young men at a central region of the kingdom over a raucous birthday party, a Saudi news website reported.
The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice arrested the young men from the city of Buraydah who were celebrating the birthday of one of them, according to 3alyoum, a website run by Saudi newspaper Okaz.
An unnamed source told the website the party was full of raucous music, and that the agents, once raiding their residence, found the revellers performing “indecent dances”.
The incident is to be referred to prosecution services, according to the website.
The committee’s operations have, for years, been largely condemned by rights advocates for what they deem as the committee’s violation of personal freedoms.
The committee was established in 1940 to ensure the public sticks to the state's Islamic code of behavior.
