P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News Staff

JEDDAH, 1 March 2004 — Investigators are grilling some 50 people, mostly expatriates, for allegedly attending a gay wedding in Madinah last Wednesday. The case has now been passed to the investigation and prosecution department.

The suspects deny they were attending a gay marriage, which is prohibited in the Kingdom, saying they took part in a ceremony to mark the wedding of a Chadian friend.

But investigators say that invitations to the ceremony indicated it was a gay function and point to the suspicious behavior of guests, who fled the venue at the sight of the police cars, some leaving their vehicles behind.

The incident sent shock waves through Saudi society when it was first reported on Friday by Al-Jazirah Arabic newspaper. The paper said police arrested guests at the wedding of an all-male couple from Chad.

But the accused Chadian told the police that he was rehearsing for his legal marriage, to be held at a wedding hall on Friday. His Saudi sponsor confirmed the man’s story saying he had given him some money to meet the marriage expenses.

Security sources said they raided a rest house in Madinah’s Aziziyah District after a tip-off from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. They also said participants left more than 30 cars in the area, which police impounded