Special to WorldTribune.com

ABU DHABI — Saudi Arabia has expanded the role of its controversial religious police force.

Officials said the religious police, formally known as Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, was given additional responsibility over Saudi security. They said the commission, known by its Arabic acronym, Haia, opened an information technology department meant to monitor the social media.

“Our unit is divided into two sections: The first receives reports and complaints from citizens and residents and the second one monitors and does follow-up operations through websites and software applications,” religious police spokesman, Turki Al Shulail said.

Al Shulail said the police, comprised of former Islamic seminary students, targeted Twitter. So far, he said, more than 10,000 Twitter accounts were closed down and several people were arrested.

“The IT crime department at Haia played a major role to close these accounts,” Al Shulail said. “Their users were committing religious and ethical violations. Haia blocked and arrested some of their owners.”

The religious police, with 10,000 officers, have been assigned to enforce Islamic mores. The police have been criticized for harassing families in malls and raiding apartments occupied by non-Muslim foreigners.

Saudi law stipulated sentences of more than five years and fines of up to $600,000 for Internet crimes. Under the law, dissidents were arrested for relaying reports on the Saudi kingdom.

“The crimes include religious or moral violations via the Internet,” Saudi attorney Ahmed Al Ahamri, who specializes on the Internet, told the Arab News. “The number of these accounts has increased during the last five years, and there is a need to put an end to them and arrest the users who publish material against our religion and society.”

  Saudi religious police gets expanded mission: Monitoring social media, WorldTribune.com