RIYADH, June 25 (Reuters) - Saudi authorities investigating the death of a man in the custody of the conservative Islamic kingdom's religious police said on Monday one person would face trial over the case, but distanced him from the force.

A 28-year-old Saudi man, Salman al-Huraisy, died in Riyadh last month, prompting accusations by his family that he was beaten to death for suspected consumption of alcohol by members of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

In recent weeks a 50-year-old man died of a heart attack while in the vice squad's custody in the desert town of Tabuk, adding to national debate about the behaviour of the force and whether it should be abolished. A statement issued by the Riyadh governorate on the official SPA news agency said the man facing trial over Huraisy's death was not one of the members of the religious police assigned to pursue the case.

"Some of those who took part in the arrest were not members of the Committee charged with investigating the case and so they had no right to take part in these activities," it said.

"Charges have been pressed against one of these people for causing the death and he will be tried in court."

The Committee is an autonomous body which operates independently of the Interior Ministry. Its Riyadh branch is partly under the supervision of Riyadh governorate, headed by Prince Salman bin Abdul-Aziz, a half-brother of King Abdullah.

The statement said some of nine members of Huraisy's family would be tried for "promoting and possessing alcohol as well as possessing drugs for consumption, and resisting arrest."

The religious police have wide powers in Saudi Arabia to enforce bans on drugs, alcohol and prostitution as well as to stop unrelated men and women from mixing.

But the force, which hardline clerics say is central to Saudi Arabia's austere form of Sunni Islam, has come under increasing criticism from reformists who consider it to be outdated and an affront to civil rights.

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