RIYADH, June 27 (Reuters) - Saudi authorities said on Wednesday a member of the conservative Islamic kingdom's religious police would be tried over the death in custody of a Saudi man.

Salman al-Huraisy, 28, died in Riyadh last month. His family say he was beaten to death by members of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice for suspected alcohol consumption.

A 50-year-old man died of a heart attack while in the vice squad's custody in the desert town of Tabuk earlier this month, and the two cases have sparked a national debate about the behaviour of the force and whether it should be abolished.

The force, which hardline clerics say is central to imposing Saudi Arabia's austere form of Sunni Islam, has come under increasing criticism from reformists who consider it a medieval anachronism and an affront to civil rights.

The squad is an autonomous body with wide powers to enforce bans on drugs, alcohol and prostitution as well as to stop unrelated men and women mixing.

A statement issued by the Riyadh governorate earlier this week used language that appeared to suggest the man facing trial over Huraisy's death was not a member of the religious police.

"We want to make clear to all that the statement did not say the person causing the death was from outside the Committee, he was just not one of the members assigned officially to this case," the new statement issued late on Tuesday said.

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