SAUDI MAN ARRESTED FOR DATING MEN VIA FACEBOOK

A man has been arrested by religious police in Saudi Arabia for using his Facebook profile to meet other men.

Gay Middle East reported on the incident ahead of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s vist to Saudi Arabia on Friday.

Activists expressed concern for the safety of the 30-year-old man who was arrested in late December.

They said that he is being held in custody by the Dammam Police Department ahead of his prosecution.

According to a report by the Sabaq electronic journal, a Saudi citizen reported the man’s alleged activities to the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

After being arrested he apparently confessed that “the Facebook profile is his and that he had been using it for obscenity acts with other men”.

British LGBT rights activist Peter Tatchell urged “the Foreign Secretary William Hague, and the EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton, to make representations to the Saudi government to secure the release of this man”.

“In the longer term, Britain and the U.S. must stop colluding with the Saudi royal dictatorship. Sanctions should be imposed against the regime until it ensures democracy and human rights for all its citizens,” he added.

Amnesty International said that it was investigating the case and noted that if the man had indeed been arrested and charged with homosexuality, it “would consider him to be a prisoner of conscience and call for his immediate and unconditional release”.

The man could face penalties ranging from imprisonment and corporal punishment to the death penalty.