Riyadh religious police power contained in

- The powers of the religious police are restricted in Saudi Arabia. That the BBC reports Wednesday. The officers of the vice squad, known as the mutawa shall henceforth no longer have arrest or chase people. Instead, they have to send their observations to the regular police or other security forces.

The mutawa are notorious in Saudi Arabia and are regularly accused of abuses. In February would be arrested several of them after they had assaulted a young woman. In 2013, four officers accused of causing a fatal car crash during a chase of two brothers who refused to turn their music down.