Manama: A mosque imam in Saudi Arabia had the shock of his life when he was quizzed at a local airport over bottles of hard liquor found in his bags.
Hassan Abu Wessam was coming home with his family and their domestic help from a vacation in Malaysia when they had a one-night stopover in a Gulf country.
When they arrived at Dammam airport in the Eastern Province, the customs officers checked their bags and found several small bottles of hard liquor.
Confronted with the find, the imam categorically denied any knowledge about how the bottles were put in the bags and insisted on his innocence, local daily Al Riyadh reported.
“When the customs officers head asked me about them, I was lost for words and could not utter a word from the shock,” Abu Wessam said.
“I turned to the domestic helper and from the look on her face, I gathered she was the one behind it. It was a highly awkward and embarrassing situation,” the imam, whose nationality was not given, said.
An investigation by customs officials revealed that the domestic helper had taken several cans of juice and bottles of hard liquor from the hotel room fridge in the Gulf country and put them in the bag without telling her employers.
The imam’s wife said that she used the credit card to pay for the hotel, but did not go through the bill and did not notice the fees for the fridge drinks consumption.
