Controversial Kurdish faith healer appears in video after Saudi arrest
Controversial Kurdish faith healer, Mala Ali Kalak, appeared in a video on Wednesday, decrying his critics and Kurdistan Region media after reports of his arrest in Saudi Arabia for alleged fraudulent activity.
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Controversial Kurdish faith healer, Mala Ali Kalak, appeared in a video on Wednesday, decrying his critics and Kurdistan Region media after reports of his arrest in Saudi Arabia for alleged fraudulent activity.
From the small town of Kalak in the outskirts of Erbil, Mala Ali, as he is commonly known, was seen in social media videos on Tuesday, in which he appeared to be carrying out one of his faith healing performances to restore eyesight to a blind man.
#BREAKING After this video was widely shared on social media, #Saudi authorities in #Medina have arrested #Kurdish faith-healer Mala Ali Kalak for allegedly claiming to have the ability to “restore the sight of blind patients and treat other incurable diseases.” #Kurdistan #Iraq pic.twitter.com/QCPT7MCgLJ
— Raveen Aujmaya (@raveenaujmaya) February 11, 2020
Shortly after, Saudi Arabia’s police command in the city of Medina said they had arrested an Iraqi national in his 50s who was in the video, “claiming to be able to treat blindness and incurable diseases.”
A public figure, Mala Ali has broadcast a multitude of personal videos and has been a guest on many local television shows wherein he has claimed to have the ability to use faith to cure a variety of illnesses, including cancer and HIV.
Kurdistan Region courts have summoned him multiple times for an alternative healing practice he ran where he used his methods on patients. He has also been in videos speaking at length about the alleged healing properties of camel urine—and has said to have drunk it.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has repeatedly issued statements warning of the potential spread of diseases such as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) through the consumption of camel urine, milk, and meat that has not been properly cooked.
Mala Ali appeared in another video on Wednesday, dressed in a white garment as he said he was about to attend a religious ceremony in Makkah, suggesting he had been detained only briefly.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany