Date: 22/06/1997

No: 66/H/97

Sectarian Arrests

   There are hundreds of religious scholars and citizens still held in Saudi prisons and jails for months and years without charges or without trials.

Many of them are being exposing to threat and sustaining the most terrible type of torture which is contrary to the Islamic Shari`a and the human rights standards.

All that happen but the international community and the human rights groups do not mind of the tragic situation  in the Arabian peninsula.

   The wave of arrests and ill-treatment against people which has been launched by the Regime for two years in order to put an end to the religious activities , which were performed by the scholars , that aim to guide people and steer them to the right path and direct them to hold religious rites and celebrate religious occasions.

   The Saudi regime arrested during the last week a lot of citizens from the Eastern  Arabian Peninsula , including:

1-     Abdol Ghani Abdullah al-Hammoud, a 32-year-old , domestic employee , from al-Dammam city. He was arrested by the members of the General Investigation (al-Mabahith al-`Amma) on 17/06/1997 at his job place in al-Khobar town. His house was raided by the security police and it was searched thoroughly. His private possession was confiscated.Al-Hammoud’s  wife and children were scared.

2-     Abdol Samad Mohammad al-Hussain a 39 –year- old an employee in (ARAMCo) from Tarout Island of Qatif. He was arrested on 20/06/1997 at one of the border check-points when he intended to travel to Iraq in order to visit the holy shrines. Reliable sources repotted that the Saudi authorities are still practicing pressure and harassment on the detainees in general and the scholars in particular to force them to sign undertakings that they will be released if they give up their religious activities.

   We call on the Muslims and the freemen all over the world to join with our people in their ordeal using all the available means. We also call on the international human rights groups to exert pressure on the Saudi regime to release the detainees.