Amnesty International

Annual Report  1996

Saudi Arabia

Scores of political suspects, including possible prisoners of conscience, were detained and up to 200 others arrested the previous year remained held without trial and without access to lawyers. Over 20 political prisoners were convicted after unfair trials; one prisoner was sentenced to death and reportedly executed. There were allegations of torture and ill-treatment, and one person was reported to have died in police custody as a result of torture. The judicial punishments of amputation and flogging continued to be imposed. There was a sharp increase in the number of executions; at least 192 people were executed during the year.

The government of King Fahd bin 'Abdul-'Aziz maintained its ban on political parties and trade unions. Press censorship continued to be strictly enforced.

Scores of political suspects were arrested and detained during the year. They included Shi'a Muslims and suspected Sunni Islamist critics of the government Many were denied visits by relatives for weeks or months after arrest and had no access to lawyers. Others were released after interrogation about their political activities.

Among those detained in connection with Shi'a religious activities were at least six people arrested in the Eastern Province. Zuhair Hajlis, Shakir Hajlis, Ridha al-Huri and Mahdi Hazam were reportedly arrested in March for taking part in a ceremony commemorating the death of the son of the late Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran. In April Sheikh Ja'far 'Ali al-Mubarak, a leading religious scholar from Safwa, was arrested, apparently for refusing to sign an undertaking not to preach. He had been arrested and held without charge or trial on two previous occasions since 1985 (see Amnesty International Report 1989). The sixth detainee, 'Abd al-Jabbar Habib al-Sheikh, was also believed to have been detained in connection with his Shi'a religious beliefs.

The majority of detainees arrested during the year were suspected Sunni Islamist opponents of the government. They included Dr Nasser al-'Umr, a professor of religious studies at the University of Riyadh, who was arrested in March, and Sheikh 'Abdul-Rahman bin Muhammad al-Dakhil, who was arrested in July.

Up to 200 other political detainees arrested in 1993 and 1994 (see Amnesty International Report 1995) continued to be held without charge or trial and without access to any legal assistance. They included possible prisoners of conscience such as Sheikh Salman bin Fahd al 'Awda and Sheikh Safr 'Abd al-Rahman al-Hawali, who were arrested in 1994 for giving public lectures criticizing the government (see Amnesty International Report 1995).

The majority of a group of suspected government opponents arrested in 1993, all said to be followers of the Salafiyya Sunni Muslim doctrine, were reportedly released (see Amnesty International Reports 1994 and 1995). However, the remainder were believed to be still held without trial.

Over 20 political prisoners arrested in 1994, some of whom may have been prisoners of conscience, were tried and convicted on charges relating to alleged attacks against security officers and links with the banned Committee for the Defence of Legitimate Rights (CDLR), based abroad. One of them, 'Abdullah 'Abd al-Rahman al-Hudhayf, was sentenced to death. The government announced that he was executed on 12 August in Riyadh, but opposition sources. claimed that he had died in custody as a result of torture. The other defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to 18 years. One of them, Ibrahim 'Abd al-Rahman al-Hudhayf, was sentenced to 300 lashes in addition to 18 years' imprisonment. None were allowed access to lawyers throughout their detention or trial. All appeared to have been punished for their political dissent rather than the criminal charges brought against them.

The fate of 'Ali L'aibj Abu Khanjar, one of at least 30 Iraqi refugees arrested following a protest in Rafha refugee camp in 1993 and held without charge or trial, remained unknown (see Amnesty International Report 1995).

Torture and ill-treatment of political detainees was reported, but prison conditions apparently improved in September when the detainees reportedly began to be allowed regular family visits. Married prisoners were apparently allowed private meetings with their wives.

One detainee was reported to have died in custody during the year. An Indonesian national was reportedly beaten to death by a policeman in the holy city of Mecca following his arrest, apparently for overstaying his visa to Saudi Arabia.

New information came to light about the torture and ill-treatment of detainees in 1994. The victims included political and criminal prisoners. The most common methods of torture used included falaqa (beatings on the soles of the feet), beatings, suspension by the wrists, and electric shocks. Among the victims was Gulam Mustafa, a Pakistani national, who was reportedly subjected to electric shocks and had a metal stick inserted into his anus while held in a detention centre for drug offenders in Jeddah in May 1994. He was reportedly left bleeding and unable to walk, and received no medical attention. He was subsequently released and deported to Pakistan.

The judicial punishments of amputation and flogging continued to be imposed for a wide range of offences, including theft, consumption of alcohol and sexual offences. At least nine people, two Saudi Arabian nationals and seven foreign nationals from Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and Somalia, had their right hands amputated in Mecca, Jeddah, Riyadh and al-Khamis. They had been convicted on charges of theft, burglary and robbery.

The punishment of flogging was widely used. Among the victims of this punishment were 11 people sentenced to between 200 and 1,500 lashes each - to be carried out 50 lashes at a time - in addition to prison sentences of between two and 15 years. The 11 were convicted of being members of a gang which carried out kidnappings, rapes and robberies.

Dr Mohammed Kamel Mohammed Khalifa, an Egyptian doctor working in Saudi Arabia, received 80 lashes in May. He had been tried on charges of slandering a Saudi Arabian headmaster whom he had accused of sexually abusing his son; his original sentence of 200 lashes had been reduced on appeal.

Mohammad 'Ali al-Sayyid, an Egyptian national working in Saudi Arabia, was serving a sentence of 4,000 lashes in addition to seven years' imprisonment, for burglary. According to former prisoners held with him at al-Buraida Prison in al-Qaseem Province in 1995, every two weeks he was taken, with his legs shackled, to the market-place where a policeman administered 50 lashes. Each flogging session was said to have left him with bruised or bleeding buttocks and unable to sleep or sit for three or four days.

There was a sharp increase in the number of executions, the vast majority carried out by public beheading. At least 192 prisoners, including seven women, were executed. Most of them were convicted of drug-related offences or murder. The majority were foreign nationals, including Afghan, Chadian, Egyptian, Filipino, Nigerian, Pakistani, Somali, Turkish and Yemeni nationals. Defendants facing the death penalty have no right to be formally represented by defence lawyers during their trials. Confessions, even when obtained under torture, are apparently accepted by the court as evidence and may be the sole evidence on which conviction is based. In addition defendants who are foreign nationals are reportedly not always provided with adequate interpretation facilities during trial.

Scores of prisoners were reported to be on death row. They included five Somali nationals, one of whom, 'Abd al-'Aziz Muhammad Isse, apparently claimed during his trial that the crimes with which he was charged had occurred before his arrival in Saudi Arabia from Somalia. Although this information was available from the airport at which he arrived, it was apparently not taken into account during his trial. Two other Somalis convicted on the same charges were executed in Jeddah on 31 May.

Amnesty International continued to express concern about the detention of people for the peaceful expression of their political or religious beliefs. It called for the immediate and unconditional release of any prisoners of conscience and for all other political prisoners to receive a fair and prompt trial or be released. The organization urged the authorities to initiate investigations into allegations of torture and ill-treatment.

Amnesty International asked the Saudi Arabian authorities for information about the execution or the death of 'Abdullah 'Abd al-Rahman al-Hudhayf, but its appeals remained unanswered.

Amnesty International also continued to express its concern about the alarming increase in the number of executions and to call for an end to the use of the death penalty. In public statements the Saudi Arabian authorities stated that the sharp rise in the number of executions was due to an increase in drug-trafficking offences. However, the authorities provided no clarification as to why prisoners were denied the right to be defended by a lawyer or why confessions obtained under torture were apparently accepted as evidence by the courts.

In April Amnesty International submitted information about its concerns in Saudi Arabia for UN review under a procedure established by Economic and Social Council Resolutions 728F/1503, for confidential consideration of communications about human rights violations.